It was after he was shot in the shoulder during a robbery and given fentanyl — a drug 50 times more potent than heroin — that Adam Vickerson began his long, painful and expensive spiral downward.Following this, he began abusing the drug before getting his hands on a prescription pad and filling out false prescriptions for himself, his co-conspirators and those he allegedly sold the drugs to.In February, the 45-year-old, Newmarket resident and former member of Satan’s Choice and Hells Angels, in Keswick, was finally sentenced for his actions, attracting a 10-year sentence.Read more:Ontario saw spike in opioid deaths in 2017, new data shows; pharmacies to offer free naloxone sprayThis is the latest in a string of elevated sentences handed down by courts to those convicted of peddling a drug that has wrought so much pain on communities around Canada and beyond.“(Fentanyl) is an extremely dangerous drug …(that can) result in death to the unschooled user,” Justice Phillip Sutherland said. “For these reasons, fentanyl should be treated by the courts with a high degree of gravity.”The local and provincial statistics show just how dangerous the drug can be.York police Const. James Watson said the number of deaths from fentanyl rose 1,400 per cent in 11 years in the region — going from no deaths in 2005 to 14 in 2016.In Ontario there were 35 in 2003 and 355 by 2016.Vickerson, a father of three, said at one point he was convincing physicians to prescribe him between 20 to 22 patches of fentanyl a month.Throughout these years he reckons he spent half a million dollars on fentanyl, including equity in his home, paycheques, savings and credit cards.When this ran out he began to conspire with a series of individuals, many of whom reside in Keswick.Vickerson and his then partner Gavin Lambie often filled out the prescriptions themselves before using fentanyl users to access them from York Region pharmacists.In all 20 people ...
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