A Sarnia man was arrested and charged for attempting to add a prescription for Tylenol 3s to his elderly mother’s medication order, but he will avoid picking up a criminal conviction despite pleading guilty if he follows the rules of his probation order.
The incident took place last summer at Hogan Guardian Pharmacy in Petrolia. A 64-year-old man took a prescription there on July 26 from a doctor at Bluewater Health for his 89-year-old mother containing orders for three different medications.
“At the top of the prescription the handwriting changed and it indicated Tylenol 3s – 20,” assistant Crown attorney Sarah Carmody said in a Sarnia courtroom while reading an agreed statement of facts.
The change in handwriting concerned the pharmacy technician he handed it to that Tuesday afternoon, so they alerted the pharmacist, who called Bluewater Health and talked to the prescribing doctor. The doctor confirmed the prescription they wrote for the woman did not include any Tylenol 3s.
The additional medication was not included when the man returned to pick them up, but he did get something added when he returned to the Petrolia Line store – a visit from Lambton provincial police.
“(He) indicated that he was just trying to help his mom,” Carmody said of his conversation with the officer.
The man was arrested and hit with two charges and last week he pleaded guilty to one count of forgery. But he won’t be identified as he received a discharge conditional on nine months of probation that includes a ban on going back to the Petrolia pharmacy.
Carmody suggests the discharge due to his motivation – attempting to help his mother, although the court did not hear why she may have needed the Tylenol 3s the doctor did not prescribe – and a large gap in his prior criminal record, which included three unrelated convictions linked to impaired driving.
Justice John Lynch agreed the suggested sentence was appropriate as it was in the man’s best interest while not being contrary to the public’s interest.
But the judge also cautioned him.
“You need to understand, sir, that you don’t today have the discharge. You have to successfully complete the nine months of probation,” he said last week. “If you breach any of the terms then it’s open to the Crown’s office to bring the matter back before the court and ask that a conviction be registered. So you need to understand that and be very cautious over the next nine months.”
He also had to pay a $100 victim-fine surcharge, but the second charge was dropped.