Scott Earle began using and eventually abusing painkillers after receiving a sports injury when he received a sports injury in high school. Although Scott would remain addicted to painkillers well into his adult life he certainly was not the image of a desperate, criminal junkie, and in fact was a hard working man who held down a full time job at a car dealership. In 1995 Scott suffered from an excruciating case of diverticulitis, a disease of the gut, and got a prescription for Vicodin from a doctor. A few days later Scott couldnt believe his luck when he was introduced to a very attractive woman in a bar. The two got to chatting and the lady enquired as to whether Scott might be able to get her some of the Vicodin he was on. Scott got in touch with a friend of his and arranged to get the woman 100 pills. As tends to happen when a beautiful stranger asks you for a large quantity of prescription pain pills, things didnt turn out too great for Scott. The woman turned out to be an undercover police officer and Scott got sentenced to 25 years in prison under mandatory minimum sentencing laws intended to harshly punish drug offenders. The sentence was so shocking even the judge who convicted Scott knew the situation was ridiculous commenting that This punishment does not fit the crime."
David O'Donoghue is a student and freelance writer from Co. Kerry, Ireland. His writing has appeared in the Irish Independent, Film Ireland, Ultraculture.com, Listverse and he is the former Political Editor for Campus.ie. He also writes short fiction and poetry which can be found at his blog/spellbook davidjodonoghue.tumblr.com
