Counterfeit Norvasc

A Hamilton pharmacist, Abadir Nasr, faces more criminal charges for selling counterfeit Norvasc to elderly clients needing the drug for their heart condition.

He faces six new fraud charges on top of five charges already laid for fraud under $5000, passing off and having property obtained by crime. Nasr was charged earlier this summer after his pharmacy on King Street West in Hamilton was raided by the R.C.M.P

Sadly, the R.C.M.P and the Ontario forensic centre could not charge him with the deaths of 8 people who died that took the counterfeit Norvasc, found to contain talc. The deaths occured before the counterfeit scheme was discovered and most of the individuals were either cremated or buried.

It's the first case of it's kind in the world and we don't have forensic science to prove that the counterfeit drug was in at least one patient.

What's not being answered, is if Mr. Nasr will face criminal negligence for knowingly selling grey-market pills. Grey-market pills are meant for another market other than Canada's. The R.C.M.P found grey-market and counterfeit Norvasc pills at the pharmacy.

The Ontario College of Pharmacy has not recinded his membership from the College. He's still allowed to dispense but not Norvasc.

Mr. Nasr's brother was found dead approximately a year earlier with a restricted drug meant for cancer patients in his system. Neither the Hamilton Police Service, the R.C.M.P or the O.P.P have discovered how his brother got the drug in the first place to overdose on it.

I'm wondering, as I am sure are others, did the dead man's brother give it to him? If Nasr gave his brother restricted drugs, was he dealing to otherrs? There are allegations circulating within Hamilton's Arab community that some pharmacists in Hamilton are faking scripts and dealing out the drugs to pushers on the street.

I've personally seen pharmaceuticals being pushed on the streets of Hamilton and have been introduced to someone who was known to be pushing pharmaceuticals (of course he wasn't introduced like that). Some time before that my car was stolen. When the car was found, I was the only person who searched the car and found a Zyprexa pill. Hamilton Poice services never did take a statement from me, fingerprint the car or ask me if I had any suspects.

The international community will be watching how this case unfolds. The court allowed Nasr to go back to his native Egypt for a relatives wedding, in which he was to arrive back to Canada today. His lawyer has told the press that he is in Canada - but not Hamilton.

I'm thinking the FBI would have pressed those criminal negligence charges against him and found traces of the drug due to better equipment.

As I was told by a Hamilton Police officer after asking why there was no criminal negligence charges laid as they would have indicted him in the U.S.for it - his response was "because we're nicer in Canada". I asked him if what he meant by that was that laws weren't being enforced here because it's not that we don't have the legislation. His response was that the penalties were too lax and referred me to the R.C.M.P and the Hamilton detective handling the case.

I've not contacted the Hamilton detective and wrote a letter to the R.C.M.P to respond. We'll see if they do.

It's a good time to resurrect this post