Local man receives 14 months time served for selling hydromorphone
By Peggy Revell on November 7, 2017.
prevell@medicinehatnews.com @MHNprevell It was time served for a Medicine Hat man who pled guilty to trafficking hydromorphone, sentenced Oct. 30 in Calgary to 14 months of custody. Michael Joseph Briand will also serve 30 months of probation following his release. According to the agreed statement of facts, on April 10, 2016, Briand negotiated with an undercover police officer to sell three hydromorphone pills for $165. Officers then attended a local convenience store where they observed Briand waiting at the ice cream machine, then took him into custody. A search of Briand produced three hydromorphone pills in an emptied sugar packet, the cellphone used to communicate with the officer and another four hydromorphone pills. Briand also pled guilty to five counts of breaching his release conditions and one count of simple possession, alongside the trafficking charge. Judge Brown in Calgary sentenced Briand to the 14 months of jail, but due to time already spent in custody it was considered time served. Briand was also given a lifetime weapons prohibition with this new sentence, as he had been sentenced in 2013 to 12 months jail for trafficking. The investigation into Briand was part of a broader investigation by local police into addressing a notorious drug house on 390 Aberdeen St. — which Briand was an occupant of at the time. That residence in September of 2016 became the first in Medicine Hat to receive a Community Safety Order. This order meant the house was fenced, boarded up and locks changed, with all living in it required to vacate it for 90 days. The owner of the residence has since died of a drug overdose, with ownership reverting to other family members. 12
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