Charges laid in Annapolis Valley drug death

A Kentville man has been charged with criminal negligence causing death in connection with a drug-related death in the Annapolis Valley.

Kyle Fredericks, 22, has also been charged with trafficking a controlled substance, hydromorphone, in relation to the death of Joshua Graves.

Graves died on March 19, 2011 after taking a lethal combination of Dilaudid and alcohol at a party.

Following his death, the RCMP said they received a public complaint and information from that investigation resulted in the criminal charges against Fredericks.

He's due in Kentville provincial court on April 2.

"The RCMP takes the issue of drug trafficking very seriously," Kings District RCMP Insp. Mike Payne said in a statement.

"We hope today's charges provide some closure for the Graves family."

Amy Graves, Joshua Graves' sister, joined Annapolis Valley Fighting Addiction after her brother's death and has been vocal about the need for better access to government-funded treatment programs in the Annapolis Valley.

She told CBC News that hearing of the charges in her brother's death felt like a "huge weight" lifted off her shoulders.

"I feel amazing," Graves said Tuesday.

"I fought with the RCMP, I called them for days asking them why they couldn't just interview the people from the party. Nobody was interviewed, no evidence was taken."

Graves said she felt some people blamed her brother for the choices he made and didn't bother to look further into the circumstances.

"If you're drinking and driving and you have someone in the car and you crash and the passenger dies and you live, you can be held accountable. But for some reason drug dealers have been allowed to get off the hook," she said.

"There's no consequence to their actions. I know Josh made a bad choice but there have to be consequences for the other people breaking the law."