–Patrick Adrian
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, Vt. — A 57-year-old Springfield man who was sentenced this week for possessing 250 bags of heroin contends he was simply self-medicating to survive.
David LaPlante was sentenced to six months of home confinement, followed by four years of probation by the Windsor County Superior Court on Monday after pleading guilty to drug trafficking.
LaPlante was arrested in Weathersfield in April when police found 250 bags of heroin in LaPlante’s possession, along with $1,800 in cash, during a routine vehicle stop.
LaPlante — who has no notable prior criminal history — accepted a plea agreement in November, suspending all but six months of a potential three- to seven-year sentence.
What’s still difficult for LaPlante to let go, he said during a telephone interview Thursday, is the labeling.
On Monday, LaPlante appeared close to giving up the plea deal. When given the opportunity to make a statement, LaPlante told Judge Timothy Tomasi he still did not feel what he did was wrong.
“I was taking the heroin for pain,” he said. “I didn’t take it for pleasure.”
“If you want me to withdraw your plea, we can start the process all over again,” Tomasi responded. “Just tell me what you want me to do.”
After stepping into the hallway his wife, Lori, and his public defender, LaPlante returned and reiterated his guilty plea.
It was difficult to do, he explained, because “trafficking” makes him sound like a drug dealer. Moreover, while he does not dispute that heroin is illegal, he contends that it is the only working substance he can get to cope with his physical suffering.
LaPlante was diagnosed with Lyme disease about seven years ago, he said. He suffers from numerous ailments that mirror those in the disease’s chronic or later stages — cognitive impairment LaPlante calls his “a brain fog,” fibromyalgia, mood problems and an array of muscle and joint pains.
“The pain sets in when I stop moving and have to lie down,” he said, explaining his desire to continue working and moving.
LaPlante said he was not a drug user in his youth. He made a living as a certified truck driver, running a small landscaping business. When physical ailments began to take over, he turned to doctors for help with the pain. The prescriptions he received early on stopped working, he said, and doctors would not give him stronger narcotics.
He started buying methadone illegally, which worked well. When methadone became unavailable, he went on to heroin. The heroin enabled him to work through the pain.
“[On big jobs] I’d be making $200 to $300 a day,” he said, “So the tradeoff for me made sense.”
While no longer able to use heroin, the court conditions will allow him to receive methadone. However, he worries that will not help him through the pain.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do now,” LaPlante said, “I usually worked 10 to 16 hours a day. I can only work for a couple of hours now [because of physical conditions].”
Additionally, he worries about loss of income from current home detention and physical illness, saying he feels “stuck.”
LaPlante is hoping his story will bring attention to what he and others like him are going through.
“There are a lot of people out there who lived good lives,” he said, “[it feels like] getting tossed to the side of the road.”
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