February 1982 – In the second year, I pretty dropped most of my courses and focused on selling drugs.  Too bad I got busted  I guess it was bound to happen.  There was so much drug use and drug dealing going on at school.  I sold a gram to a narc.  Funny thing is, I knew he was I narc, but I sold it to him anyway.  I was so stoned I didn’t know what to do. 

I had just finished smoking a monster spliff when the narc came to my door.  “Somebody said I could buy a gram here”, he says.  I had about 20 grams in my pocket and the room was full of smoke.  I thought if I didn’t sell it I probably get busted anyway.  So I sold him a gram.  He said thanks and walked away but I just knew he was a narc. 

Sure enough, about a week later I came home and my door was wide open, my clothes were thrown all over the place, and there was a card from the police sitting on my desk.  When I left earlier that morning, I was just after buying a quarter pound of hash (4 oz).  I weighed out 20 grams and put them in my desk.  I put the rest of the chunk in a drawer, under my clothes.  Then I locked my door and started heading  downtown. 

Five minutes later, I came back thinking, “I should hide that better”, so I put it in a case of beer bottles.  When I checked my room after the search, the 20 grams were gone but the big chunk was still there!  Mixed feelings there.  I was busted but it would have been a lot worse if they had found the big piece.  This pretty much ended my university days.  I was allowed to finish the year, but I was kicked out of residence. 

[Editors Note: In what was a very bizarre coincidence, on the day that he was expelled from residence, his horoscope in the city newspaper read, “Expect a change in residence …”]

For the bust, I got a $600 fine.  No big deal really but I got a criminal record for it.  That was the worst that happened. [Reggie described the $600 fine as “no big deal.” The criminal record proved to be much more consequential. Years later, it would continue to affect his employment opportunities, including his ability to remain working at Toronto Island Airport.]

After Reg had served some time in Jail, his case was reviewed, and he was recommended for Day Parole, in which he would live at a Treatment Facility, but would be free to leave the facility during the day.

Below is the record prepared for the court, making this recommendation:

Reg’s final grades after expulsion

Reggie was an intelligent person, so his final university grades are striking. But as he explained in his own account, by his second year he had largely stopped attending classes and was more interested in selling drugs than in his studies.

His grades reflect just how far his priorities had shifted.

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Full Circle

There is a part of this story that I find difficult to ignore.

In 1981, I had sat in a room in Montreal looking at what I remember as approximately 40 kilograms of hash. What frightened me most was the thought of the police suddenly coming through the door and having to explain why I was sitting in a room with that quantity of drugs.

I came home to Prince Edward Island and warned my brothers about what I had seen.

A few years later, Reggie was attending the same university I had attended, travelling to Montreal to buy hash and cocaine, and selling drugs in Halifax.

And then the police came.

In a strange way, the consequence I had imagined while sitting in that Montreal room—the possibility that involvement in the drug trade could suddenly collide with the police and change the direction of your life—had become part of Reggie’s story.

I don’t believe I could have warned him any more clearly. But warnings only matter if the person hearing them sees the danger in the same way.