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Gloucester man gets three years for selling Oxy
Published: August 8, 2007
A Grove Street man was sentenced to three years in state prison for selling an undercover state police officer 100 OxyContin tablets from his home in 2005.
Joseph Klyce, 41, of 78 Grove St., pleaded guilty in Lawrence District Court last week to possession of oxycodone, the opiate painkiller that includes the brand name OxyContin, with the intent to distribute.
Police said Klyce sold $6,000 worth of OxyContin to an undercover agent at his Grove Street home in late April 2005 and was arrested May 19, 2005, for trafficking OxyContin in a school zone.
An undercover agent met Klyce in the parking lot of the Grant Circle shopping center April 27, 2005, and then went with him to his home at 78 Grove St., where Klyce sold the agent 100 OxyContin pills for $6,000, according to the police report.
Agents from the Essex County Drug Task Force made the arrest around 10 a.m. May 19 while Klyce was walking on Cleveland Street.
The prescription drug OxyContin, a brand name for the drug oxycodone, is a potent painkiller that has been abused in the last few years as a recreational drug. Its addictive qualities lead many who use it to become dependent. It has a steep street price - it can sell anywhere from $50 to $80 a pill.
Last month, a federal judge in Virginia dealt a $634.5 million fine to Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, and three of its executives for misleading people about the drug's power to trap the unwary in a heroin-like addiction.
Michael Friedman, who retired in June as Purdue's president, general counsel Howard Udell and former chief medical officer Paul Goldenheim each pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of misbranding the drug. The fine levied by federal Judge James Jones called for these three to pay $34.5 million out of their own pockets. In addition, they've been given three years' probation and ordered to do 400 hours of community work in the drug prevention field.
Thirteen North Shore men were arrested in June 2004 as part of an eight-month undercover operation conducted from a Riverdale Park apartment. Between October 2003 and June 2004, more than 1,000 OxyContin tablets were purchased from the defendants by undercover law enforcement agents.
The 13 men were indicted by a federal grand jury in October 2004 and were sentenced last summer in U.S. District Court in South Boston.
Joseph Klyce, 41, of 78 Grove St., pleaded guilty in Lawrence District Court last week to possession of oxycodone, the opiate painkiller that includes the brand name OxyContin, with the intent to distribute.
Police said Klyce sold $6,000 worth of OxyContin to an undercover agent at his Grove Street home in late April 2005 and was arrested May 19, 2005, for trafficking OxyContin in a school zone.
An undercover agent met Klyce in the parking lot of the Grant Circle shopping center April 27, 2005, and then went with him to his home at 78 Grove St., where Klyce sold the agent 100 OxyContin pills for $6,000, according to the police report.
Agents from the Essex County Drug Task Force made the arrest around 10 a.m. May 19 while Klyce was walking on Cleveland Street.
The prescription drug OxyContin, a brand name for the drug oxycodone, is a potent painkiller that has been abused in the last few years as a recreational drug. Its addictive qualities lead many who use it to become dependent. It has a steep street price - it can sell anywhere from $50 to $80 a pill.
Last month, a federal judge in Virginia dealt a $634.5 million fine to Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, and three of its executives for misleading people about the drug's power to trap the unwary in a heroin-like addiction.
Michael Friedman, who retired in June as Purdue's president, general counsel Howard Udell and former chief medical officer Paul Goldenheim each pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of misbranding the drug. The fine levied by federal Judge James Jones called for these three to pay $34.5 million out of their own pockets. In addition, they've been given three years' probation and ordered to do 400 hours of community work in the drug prevention field.
Thirteen North Shore men were arrested in June 2004 as part of an eight-month undercover operation conducted from a Riverdale Park apartment. Between October 2003 and June 2004, more than 1,000 OxyContin tablets were purchased from the defendants by undercover law enforcement agents.
The 13 men were indicted by a federal grand jury in October 2004 and were sentenced last summer in U.S. District Court in South Boston.
Klyce's case was unrelated to those men; his stayed in the state judicial system.
