A4

By Laura MacInnis

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Speak Up

Neil Willis Coughlan shook in his seat and cried as he told the court about the pain he went through after surgery and why he altered a prescription.

"You said you don't know if I'm in pain or not," he said to Judge Denis Lordon. "I was in a lot of pain. "

Coughlan, 32, was accused of altering a legitimate prescription from his doctor in order to quadruple the dosage of Tylenol 3 and Naprosyn.

It was the pharmacist who noted the prescription looked suspicious and alerted the Miramichi Police Force on Feb. 27. According to police the doctor had a routine of circling the number of pills.

Coughlan pled guilty to forging the documents and was given one year supervised probation.

Crown Prosecutor Jean Guy Savoie had asked for a jail term, the usual sentence handed down for such a crime.

His lawyer, Jaclyn Gallant asked for the court to consider a probationary sentence due to the fact that he became addicted after a legitimate medical problem and not out of recreational habits.

After a major surgery three months before the incident, he claimed he wanted the extra medication because of the severe pain, and quickly became addicted.

"What are you doing for the pain now?" asked the judge.

"Nothing. Just Tylenol..."

The judge said he realized what Coughlan was going through, more than he realized.

"I am not without sympathy. I had the same surgery and I can tell you the pain doesn't go away overnight," he said. "You have to give it time, the pain will never go away completely."

In the end he said he must consider Coughlan's record of drug abuse as well as the reasons for the current medical problem.

"Looking at your history I've got to wonder if some of this was recreational." said the judge."We put people in jail for doing this."

But mostly he said he was concerned about Coughlan's future relationship with doctors and getting over the addiction.

"Doctors now know you doctored the prescription, and the next time they may be extremely reluctant to give it to you. The medical profession is already concerned about addictions from legitimate prescriptions without people doctoring them."

Coughlan addressed the court, saying he was ready to move on.

"I know what I did was wrong. I just want to get this over with," Coughlan said. "I want to put this behind me and get to work out West."

As part of his supervised probation Coughlan is prohibited from using any prescribed drugs not prescribed to him and will undergo counselling at addiction services to cope with his reliance on the oxycontin.