Smuggling Grandma Innocent

Twelve days in jail. A hint of a trace of heroin in a canning jar that contained motor oil. A 66 year old woman crossing the border from Minnesota into Manitoba, Canada. What is wrong with this picture?

It is essential that we do all that we can to stop the drug trafficking, but in this instance, Janet Goodin from Minnesota got a pretty bad deal. In April 2011 she was driving over the international border to meet up with some family members and play bingo. The trip ended up being a much larger gamble.

She was stopped and searched by the Canadian border guards, and then pulled over for a secondary inspection. Okay, that’s not too unusual as people undergo that sort of questioning on a random basis. In the back of her car there was a canning jar – not so suspicious for a woman of her age to have. In this case there was some motor oil left from when she had a recent oil change – a little unusual, but not too weird.

For some reason, the border guards tested the oil and there was some indication that there were traces of heroin. They called the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and detained her. The RCMP ran a thorough test to make sure that no narcotics were present, and then dropped the charges. But for some reason, all of that took 12 days! 12 days of sitting in what she described as filthy conditions and being subjected to a strip search besides. Her family members were able to raise $5000 for her bail, but since a surety of $15000 was also expected, and her daughter’s homes didn’t qualify, there she sat.

Now, as was said at the beginning, it’s important to take drug trafficking seriously, and although people don’t usually think of grandmothers as the kingpins, there are, unfortunately, older women who get involved in such matters to earn money or feed their own habits. And field tests that come up positive need to be taken seriously.

But a “trace” in a canning jar full of motor oil – how that could become a charge that she was going to distribute heroin is still a mystery. So is the fact that she lost 12 days of her life for it. We have to be a little more careful and a little more respectful of people in the future. And from the sounds of it, hiring a cleaning crew for that jail might be in order as well. In the meantime, Janet Goodin is waiting for an apology and considering a lawsuit.