The previous proprietor and operator of a Saskatoon pharmacy pleaded responsible Monday to trafficking medication, admitting she illegally bought greater than 22,000 oxycodone tablets.
Jenna Ternan, 43, was sentenced to 5 years in jail for what Justice David Gerecke known as an “appalling breach of belief” that “led you to hurt many people you’ll by no means meet.”
He made the feedback whereas accepting the joint sentencing proposal in Saskatoon Courtroom of King’s Bench from the Crown and defence.
In response to an agreed assertion of information filed in court docket, police began investigating Ternan after they arrested a person in January 2023 and seized medication from him that included oxycodone tablets and a field with a label for Northumberland Pharmacy, which Ternan owned and operated.
The person’s cellphone additionally contained messages between him and Ternan that talked about exchanging medication for cash.
Police finally decided Ternan bought greater than 22,200 tablets, valued between $58,000 and $87,400, between September 2022 and January 2023, Crown prosecutor Kirsten Janis mentioned in court docket.
Ternan was arrested in March 2023, alongside together with her common-law associate of eight years, Elmer Hanson. Hanson was additionally charged, however he died earlier than going to trial.
Defence lawyer Will Louison mentioned Ternan “type of obtained caught up” within the drug trafficking and it has been laborious for her to pinpoint the way it began. He described how Ternan’s associate, Hanson, struggled with a drug dependancy and had a persistent harm that affected his means to work — after which Hanson grew to become hooked on the opioids he had been prescribed.
Ternan supported Hanson financially and employed him on the pharmacy after he might now not work in building. Hanson additionally developed a playing dependancy.
Whereas the drug trafficking was partly Hanson’s concept, Ternan accepts her position and acknowledges what she was doing was flawed, Louison mentioned.
Oxycodone tablets are proven in a file photograph. Saskatoon pharmacist Jenna Ternan pleaded responsible Monday to trafficking greater than 22,000 tablets. (Steve Heap/Shutterstock)
Case regulation reveals the vary of sentences for pharmacists who site visitors medication is between three and 14 years, however the longer sentences have concerned fentanyl, which is taken into account a extra harmful drug, the decide famous.
Gerecke mentioned the breach of belief is a “very weighty issue,” however agreed that 5 years was an acceptable sentence.
Minus credit score for her time on remand, Ternan has roughly three years and 11 months left to serve.
