Tammi Ann Wood

Image Credit: FACEBOOK

Despite being caught with $10,000 worth of fentanyl and other illicit drugs, a 57-year-old Penticton food truck owner says she's turned her life around enough she shouldn't go to jail.

It's been more than four years since Tammi Ann Wood was arrested with a car full of drugs and in that time she'd moved to the Okanagan and runs a food truck at a cherry farm.

According to a June 16 BC Provincial Court decision, Wood said since being arrested in Chilliwack she'd moved to the Okanagan and rebuilt her life, distancing herself from her negative peer group.

The decision said Wood was picked up during an investigation into unlicenced drug consumption site, the Chilliwack Union of Drug Users.

Publicly it held itself out as a harm reduction site, but Judge Michael Fortino said it was "anything but that."

The site's director, Scott Tonks, was later charged with drug trafficking but appears to have gone on the run.

The decision said in March 2021, RCMP officers noticed Tonks sitting in Wood's car outside the Chilliwack Union of Drug Users site.

The following day she was arrested.

Police found 188 grams of methamphetamine, six grams of fentanyl, five grams of a fentanyl-etizolam mixture and 23 grams of cocaine.

"In addition to the drugs seized, Ms. Wood’s car contained $310 cash inside a suitcase, score sheets and a baseball bat," the decision read. "Inside her purse was $1,810 cash, 1.82 grams of cocaine, additional score sheets and a scale containing cocaine, fentanyl, benzodiazepine, and methamphetamine residue."

Cell phone records with a person identified as "Amber New" included a conversation about mixing fentanyl with etizolam to reduce production costs.

Police then searched her home and found another 55 grams of meth, a money counter, score sheets, scales and a note with "cook" instructions.

"In the laundry room, police found mixing bowls, spoons, and utensils contaminated with fentanyl and etizolam residue," the decision read.

Police valued the drugs at between $7,450 and $11,620, depending on how it is sold.

Police had wanted to establish that Wood was supplying the safe consumption with illicit drugs, but Judge Fortino said the evidence fell "markedly short" of that.

Following her arrest Wood moved her food truck business, Tammi’s Terrific Dawgs, to the Okanagan.

Her lawyers argued her personal circumstances and pro-social life following her arrest should result in Wood getting two years of house arrest.

The decision said she grew up exposed to alcoholism from an early age and spent time in foster care because her mother's addiction meant she couldn't look after her daughter.

Following a divorce and losing custody rights to her now adult children, Wood began frequently using cocaine in the mid-90s.

Another partner went to jail for domestic violence. Her brother died of a drug overdose.

Over the years, she has had lengthy periods of sobriety before slipping back into addiction.

Her adoptive parents sat in the courtroom with her, and letter of support were supplied to the court. Since moving to the Okanagan she'd stayed out of trouble.

However, Judge Fortino wasn't swayed.

"The tragic impact this poison has on the community is inescapable and it is often those who are most impoverished, marginalized and vulnerable that withstand the worst of this epidemic," the judge said. "Despite the criminal justice system bearing witness to the tragedies presented by the toxic drug crisis for over a decade now, and the significant amount of judicial ink spilled outlining its deleterious impacts, the illicit drug trade and the toxic drug crisis it perpetuates continues to plague our communities and, to this day, 'shows no signs of abating.'"

The Judge pointed out Wood was a mid-level dealer who sold drugs for profit, not just to support her own addiction.

"She not only sold the deadly drugs, but was involved in the mixing and cutting of them, with their ultimate destination being the streets and the vulnerable population who uses them," the judge said.

The judge said she mixed fentanyl with etizolam, making the drug unresponsive to naloxone.

"Ms. Wood’s offending gambled with many lives," the judge said, adding she had a "substantial indifference" to the people who took her drugs.

Ultimately, Judge Fortino sentenced Wood to two years and four months in jail.

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