Prince Albert woman accused of operating ‘pharmacy for the street’

Senior found with hydromorphone, Ritalin, codeine pills, plastic baggies

A wheelchairbound 60-year-old woman allegedly operated a “pharmacy for the street,” in the words of a Crown prosecutor, who claims she trafficked prescription pain medication to drug users in Prince Albert.

Rosemary Zoerb was released on bail Thursday. She is scheduled for trial this October on a 2015 trafficking charge and faces several new charges for allegedly trafficking hydromorphone, Ritalin and codeine last month.

According to Crown prosecutor Trent Forsyth, police conducted surveillance at Zoerb’s home in September 2015 after receiving a tip from a confidential informant. They observed “several short duration meetings consistent with drug trafficking,” Forsyth said.

Police eventually moved in to search Zoerb’s residence. Inside, they found more than 150 pills of hydromorphone, a powerful narcotic. Some were allegedly packaged in baggies. Officers also found about 160 pills of gabapentin, a medication used to treat nerve pain and seizures. Forsyth told court the gabapentin was kept in a safe.

Zoerb was charged and released on conditions the next day, but officers got another confidential tip and reinitiated their surveillance of her home. They allegedly saw more meetings and conducted another search last month, finding 154 hydromorphone pills in separate small baggies, Forsyth said. They also found 71 codeine pills, 30 Ritalin pills and 37.3 grams of marijuana.

Forsyth said Zoerb was “preying on people who are addicted” and driving a “never-ending” cycle of drug abuse and property crime.

“What we have here, in both September of 2015 and July of 2017, is a virtual pharmacy for the street,” he said. “We all know what a scourge these street drugs are in the city of Prince Albert.”

Zoerb’s lawyer, Allicia Hunter, argued that her client should be released on bail to live at her uncle’s house with a curfew. So far, Zoerb does not have a criminal record, Hunter noted. She admitted the drugs, as well as a scale and baggies, were found in her client’s house, but argued that doesn’t prove Zoerb was trafficking.

“Is she trafficking her prescription medication or does she just have prescription medication in the house?” she asked.

Hunter also argued there was nothing suspicious about the high quantity of medication in Zoerb’s possession. She said her client’s prescription allowed her to pick up 190, or even 270, hydromorphone pills at a time.

She also challenged the credibility of two Crown witnesses who said Zoerb provided them with drugs.

“I think we need to take what they say with a grain of salt,” she said. “They are drug users; they admit that.”

Judge Hugh Harradence said the Crown had presented strong evidence to support the charge.

“The quantity of the drugs and the way they were stored in both incidents leads to a fairly strong inference that she’s involved in drug trafficking,” he said.

However, he noted that Zoerb is presumed innocent and ordered her released on $800 cash bail with a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and a condition that she not possess any drugs – except those prescribed to her by a medical doctor.

The quantity of the drugs and the way they were stored in both incidents leads to a fairly strong inference that she’s involved in drug trafficking.