Board failed with addicted pharmacist: lawyer

A St. John's lawyer is deeply critical of how the Newfoundland and Labrador Pharmacy Board handled the matter of a disgraced pharmacist who was jailed last month for drug charges.

Ann Marie Burke, 55,was sentencedto two years and 31 days in prison after pleading guilty to five charges, including possession for the purpose of trafficking. The charges were laid after police raided her LeMarchant Road condominium last winter.

Court was told that Burke, whose practice included working with methadone addicts in St. John's, had had addictions problems of her own, involving alcohol and later the powerful painkillers OxyContin and Percocet.

But lawyer Catherine Perry, a friend of Burke's for more than 20 years, said she warned the Pharmacy Board more than two years ago that Burke was likely selling drugs, and had become an addict herself.

In an interview, Perry told CBC News that she had seen a distinct change in Burke's personality, and the woman she knew as a fun-loving mother of two had changed about 18 months before her January 2011 arrest.

'Blurred in an unfortunate way'

"I was shocked by the difference to the extent that I even wondered, has she had a stroke?Is there some brain injury orsomething after happening here?" Perry said.

"Because there was a marked difference in her personally, her personal hygiene, and the way she conducted herself."

Armed with suspicions and information, Perry said she confronted the pharmacist in charge of Downtown Pharmacy where Burke was working.

Perry said she was concerned about the sale of prescription goods, about stolen goods and about the clients Burke was serving.

"I was concerned that the line between professional and personal life had been blurred in an unfortunate way," she said.

Perry said the pharmacist did nothing, so she went to the Pharmacy Board.

She said she was told the board would not act unless she put her concerns in writing.

"I was astonished I got that response because I believe firmly that I was making a very serious allegation, and if it turned out to be true, which it has, then it would be something that would be of immediate concern to the Pharmacy Board," she said.

She said the board had toolsincluding the power of subpoenathat she does not possess.

More than a tip needed

The Pharmacy Board will not talk about the Burke case, buta topofficial said the board needs more than a tip to investigate.

"Suspicion, rumours, hearsay, where there's smoke, there's fire all of that sort of stuff obviously play on your mind and sometimes that's the frustration we have to deal with here in our office," secretary-registrar Don Rowe told CBC News.

"When you hear rumours or you hear unsubstantiated allegations, obviously it concerns you, but sometimes you're restricted in the response that you can take in the absence of having formal factual information."

Perry also said she did not want to put her allegations into writing, for fear of the clientele who used the pharmacy where Burke worked.

While Perry said the board ignored a section of the Pharmacy Act that allows it to investigate serious allegations, Rowe said the law is not clear.

"That actually is a debatable issue. Under our old act we used to have the right to investigate issues and so forth. But a strict reading of our act is I may or may not," he told CBC News.

Perry said the board did nothing, and that Burke kept working for another 18 months, putting the public at risk.

"If this person is under the influence of drugs while dispensing methadone or dispensing any type of drug, there's a real risk to public safety, and the obligation is on you to protect the public," she said.

Rowe says he understands the public being puzzled by the board not taking immediate action, and rules prevent him from explaining why.

"It's frustratingly difficult to get things to happen as quickly as you would like," he said.

"I only wish I could express my frustration more openly than I can. It's entirely inappropriate for me to talk about it more than that at this point."

Formal complaint made

Meanwhile, Perry said that Burke's boss at Downtown Pharmacy, Paul Gill, ignored her concerns as well.

"Because it is his obligation as well, as the pharmacist in charge, to ensure that the public, that is his clientsare protected. He failed to do anything," she said.

In an affidavit of complaint, Perry wrote, "Given that I had advised him [that Burke was an alcoholic] in writing in May 2009, and had a discussion with him subsequent to that, he cannot deny that he was so aware from that time forward, over a year and a half before she was arrested for the very activities that I alleged."

But in a June 5 letter to the Pharmacy Board, Gill wrote, "I was certainly not aware of Ms Burke's issues other than that she was a recovering alcoholic."

In her formal complaint, Perry also claims that Gill may have had a relationship with Burke, and stated: "In my opinion, it compromised any ability he may have had to objectively make judgments that he was obliged to make as Pharmacist-in-Charge."

In another letter to the board, dated Oct. 9, Gill wrote, "I have done nothing illegal and was unaware if Ms. A.M. Burke was."

Gill would not discuss any of Perry's allegations with CBC News. The Pharmacy Board would only say that it has received Perry's complaint about Gill.

Burke, meanwhile, is now serving a federal sentence, during which she hopes to obtain help for her addictions.