Safe supply drugs lead to Nanaimo dial-a-dope investigation

The accused drug traffickers allegedly had their own business cards, complete with a phone number and a name for a dial-a-dope operation: 'Up Side Down Inc.'

According to a search warrant obtained by CBC, Nanaimo RCMP arrested them after an investigation that began with a complaint about a vehicle approaching people near a pharmacy "and attempting to trade them hard drugs for their safe supply" prescriptions.

The same vehicle was then allegedly spotted a short time later "dealing drugs [in] the parking lot across the street" from a modular supportive housing complex on the other side of the harbour city's small downtown.

"Security was concerned as many of the residents at Newcastle Housing struggled with addiction," reads the information sworn to obtain the search warrant.

'A lot of people don't believe us'

The arrests happened in April 2023, and the two people charged in the case — Heather Penner and Ronald Schilling — will appear in court within the next two months for ongoing criminal proceedings.

Both are charged with five counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine. According to the Nanaimo court registry, Schilling pleaded guilty to all five counts last month. Penner could not be reached for comment.

The case highlights concerns raised by area residents for months about both diversion — the movement of safe supply drugs into the illicit market — and the fear predatory drug dealers are targeting vulnerable people in supportive housing.

"Reports from the community were rampant that that was happening," said Collen Middleton, one of the founders of the Nanaimo Area Public Safety Association.

Middleton says his neighbours have been trying to get attention for what he called a "milk-run" of drug dealers obtaining safe supply drugs from people outside the pharmacy before "fencing" them to users elsewhere.

"A lot of people don't believe us when we speak up about what we see with our own eyes," he said.

'That's exactly what we were doing'

The warrant was obtained to search the contents of a black Samsung cellphone seized by police at the time the suspects were arrested.

According to the court document, the person who called to complain about a car offering to trade hard drugs for a safe supply said, "A female with a blond wig over brunette hair was reportedly driving the vehicle."

A car with the same licence plate was then allegedly spotted outside Newcastle Housing dealing drugs, but the car was gone when police first arrived. The warrant says security guards called three hours later to advise "that the vehicle had returned."

The car was gone again by the time police arrived, but the officers intercepted the vehicle after it passed them on the road about 15 minutes later.

"I could clearly see a female with a blond wig in the driver's seat and a male with a baseball bat in the front passenger seat," wrote the officer who swore the information to obtain the warrant.

The two were taken into custody on the roadside and told they were part of a drug trafficking investigation.

Police allegedly found drugs inside the car, later identified by Health Canada as cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine.

"There was a business card for 'Up Side Down Inc' in the display console which contained a phone number," the officer wrote, noting that it was "believed to be a dial-a-dope business card.

"There was a bottle containing white pills on the rear driver's side passenger seat. (I recognized the pills as hydromorphone.")

Investigations into diversion

British Columbia became the first province to offer prescribed alternatives to street drugs in March 2020. In May, 4,295 people were dispensed safe supply drugs, according to figures provided by B.C.'s Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions.

Advocates have long acknowledged the possibility some safe supply users might exchange their prescription drugs for stronger street drugs.

But the extent of the problem is unknown.

At one point, Prince George RCMP called it an "alarming trend" — a claim the force's assistant commissioner countered almost immediately by saying there was "no evidence to support a widespread diversion."

The search warrant is one of a number of documents obtained by CBC detailing police investigations into diversion. 

In March, RCMP in Prince George spent 10 days mounting a surveillance operation on a 58-year-old woman who allegedly stood outside a downtown pharmacy each morning trading illicit drugs for safe supply medication.

A search warrant in that case described the 84 transactions officers said they observed between the suspect and a lineup of up to 15 people who waited outside the pharmacy each day to fill their prescriptions.

The CBC also obtained a search warrant that resulted in charges this spring against four people in Campbell River after a raid that saw the seizure of 3,500 pills of Dilaudid — a brand name for hydromorphone — during a bust on a tiny First Nation.

'It's hard to afford on a pension'

In an email to CBC, Nanaimo RCMP Const. Gary O'Brien said both unsheltered people and people in housing are being asked to sell their safe supply "frequently."

"Once a prescription is obtained and the safe supply picked up, it's just a matter of time, sometimes minutes, until it is swapped for street drugs. People have also been robbed of their safe supply," O'Brien wrote.

"This has been going on for some time. Not all are swapping, but a large percentage are."

Middleton noted the "predatory" nature of street-level dealers accused of undermining the prescribed alternative programs and pushing drugs on people who are battling addiction.

"These aren't victimless crimes," he said.

"The people on the street — people are trying to get them into treatment programs or into safer supply programs with good intentions, but they're continually being marketed to by these street drug runners and drug dealers."

Penner is in her early 40s, and Schilling is approaching 70.

According to the Nanaimo search warrant, as he was arrested, Schilling "spontaneously uttered, 'We're both users, you know?'"

"I acknowledged the comment with 'yeah,'" the officer wrote.

"Schilling then said, 'It's hard to afford on a pension,' while nodding his head slowly and looking toward the exhibits which had been placed on the roof of his vehicle."