Today's Gazette
Now that's a bad day
Whacked, bitten, fined and overdosed
PHIL COUVRETTE, CanWest News Service
Published: Thursday, September 06 2007A man from the Outaouais suffered violent convulsions during a crack cocaine overdose, was attacked by his pit bull and struck in the face by friends trying to scare off the dog.
Then things got worse.
He was sent to a hospital and now faces charges of drug possession after a nurse found 10 grams of crack during a body search.
The events started Aug. 26, when the 41-year-old man from Val des Monts, about 20 kilometres north of Ottawa, suffered a crack overdose and fell to the ground, convulsing violently. He was then attacked by his American pit bull terrier. The dog "took a bite out of him" under the left ear, said Constable Martin Fournel, of the regional police force.
His friends then tried to dislodge the animal by swinging a baseball bat, but whacked the man's face after missing the dog.
All four people in the house were under the influence of drugs, Fournel pointed out.
He was later fined $250 because owning a dog of that breed is illegal, according to a municipal bylaw. Later that day, a nurse treating him in a Gatineau hospital "noticed something abnormal in the man's intimate parts," Fournel said.
Doctors then extracted a plastic zip-lock bag from his buttocks. The bag contained about 10 grams of crack, Fournel said.
The man now faces changes of possession of drugs with the intent to traffic.
