A Washington police officer has been charged with possession of a controlled substance and theft after authorities say she stole narcotics from a city’s prescription drug disposal box.
Smaaladen was placed on administrative leave in November.
Police Chief Dan Schoonmaker said the conduct will not be tolerated, but described Smaaladen as an “otherwise exceptional police officer.”
The Poulsbo officer is being charged with felony drug possession after surveillance video allegedly shows her taking narcotics from a box inside the police department.
KIRO 7 has learned this officer has been with the department for decades.
Schoonmker said he was “extremely shocked” to see that video.
And others in the community were surprised as well.
Investigators say the surveillance video shows Smaaladen taking narcotics that were left in this narcotics drop box at the police station.
According to court documents, Smaaladen said she located the keys to the drug depository box in a lock-box within the police department.
A Poulsbo city employee became suspicious in October after watching this surveillance video to check her timesheet.
“I reviewed that video. It certainly looked suspicious to me,” said Schoonmaker. “So the first thing that I did is contact [the] Bremerton police department. We have a really good relationship with our allied agencies.”
Smaaladen was charged on Wednesday with possession of a controlled substance, morphine and third-degree theft.
Any disciplinary action by the police department can only take place after an internal investigation.
The criminal investigation must be completed first.
“Since we’ve just begun the internal investigation, we will see what that reveals,” said Schoonmaker.
Investigators believe Smaaladen took the drugs to supplement her legally prescribed medications she used to treat pain from injuries.
Some in the community told KIRO 7 they feel somewhat sympathetic when we told them about this crime.
“She was taking illegal drugs,” Vince Ryan, a Poulsbo native, said. “She obviously shouldn’t have stolen them, but in a way you could say that she was disabled — at least temporarily — by her addiction.”
“At this point, I think, you have to pay for the consequences to your actions,” Marianne Ryan, a Poulsbo native, said.
Imagine that… a person who has pain from injuries – perhaps work related – and being – perhaps – having their pain under treated because of the new CDC guidelines.. and – perhaps – at risk of having to stop working because of uncontrolled pain ?
Filed under: General Problems
I can FULLY understand why she possibly took a substance that she knew what was and what it did for pain. WAS the reason that she took the substance becuase she was being pain managed for injury inadequately from the geatapo(DEA) because of the CDC “guideline:? VERY possible; however we expect our police force to remain inside the lawful use of a controlled substance. Her action may very well be a testiment as to how overpowering insufficient pain management due to inadequate pain managment therapy truly is. Possibly like millions of other citizens, human beings, she HAD to work. I, personally can totally identify with her because when I was reduced by 80 percent in the medication I have used for 7 years without a dosage increase request, it did not mean that I was not in pain, it meant that the pain that I was enduring was within my tolerable limitation. My business of 37 years, 23 years of which I was adequately pain managed was jerked out from under me, without my consent, WITH 23 years of documentation that no harm was being done to me health wise, my pill counts AND urine screening every eight weeks COSISTENTLY shown the SAME level of my prescribed medication was “in me” for 7 years BUT, this did not mean jack$hit to the gestapo……..the DEA. If my theory is correct. I FULLY understand WHY she took the medication. She very MUCH needed to work. One year and one half after a random amount of dosage was “picked” as a maximum dosage for one and all pain management patients by the CDC behind closed doors without doctor/patient practical input I no longer work, lost my business of 37 years, and now my “awarded” disability is NOT accepted as payment by my pain management specialist. SO, in summary, I can no longer work, I can NOT afford to receive 20 percent of prescribed medication which is NOT adequate but, medically neccessary pain management dosage for me, and the future looks bleak. I believe that this ladies case needs to be representative of what MILLIONS of other patients are facing to simply………..survive. Is their no mercy on legitimate pain management patients? Those truly “addcited” to the well being sensation (which pain managment patients do NOT experience} of prescribed medication to the point of multiple substance abuse causing overdose are NOT getting the realistic treatment that they really need nor are the pain patients in this country being treated for a medically neccessary condition of continuous pain that WE need to be treated for. I blame the Gestapo, the DEA. It is NOT rocket science!!!!!!
Hayden Hamby Jr, I do not know if you have Medicare. But if you do you should be able to find a pain management doctor that accepts,Medicare in your area at the link below. If you don’t have Medicare. Hopefully the info will help others.
https://www.medicare.gov/physiciancompare/
Maybe the availability of physicians willing to properly treat pain is better in your area of Shreveport, LA.. it is not what I am hearing from chronic pain pts from other parts of the country.. my understanding for a chronic pain pt to find a prescriber that will adequately treat chronic pain is like finding a Unicorn. The dramatic increase of suicides by chronic pain pts would suggest that all too many are losing their opiates and/or having their doses cut to a point where they cannot continue to tolerate their pain and chose the only way to eliminate their pain… although rather drastic.
Pharmacist Steve, I have real life friends that live all over the country. Only a few have had any problems having their pain managed. They are the ones that don’t want to see a new doctor and stick with them for at least a few months.
They want to go to a first appointment and walk out with what they have taken in the past. This is no longer realistic. Nor should it be.
Hmmm,,Ms,Hope,,,my guess is either u are a governmrnt employee on my tax dollars or a condition called opiatephobia?,,But here is a big persons questions for u,,Since it is factually impossible for u or anyone else to physically feel the physical pain of another,,,WHY,,, do u insist upon being/practicing medicine w/out proper license?Why do u think u have the right to decide for EVERYONE how much physical pain they are too FORCIBLE suffer by denying them effective medicines to lessen their physical pain??There was NOTHING WRONG W/PAINMANAGEMENT BEFORE,,THEN THE GOVERNMENT CAME/BULLYIED AFTER US,,WE DIDN’T COME AFTER THEM,,THEY CAME AFTER US,,TORTUREING US LITERALLY TO DEATH,,,maryw
Administrated leave? Theft and possession? She should be in jail. Like the rest of us so called chronic pain patients addicts see the legal system only works for those who work in government whereas I would be presumed guilty taken to jail to wait for my trial.
Police Officers enforce the law.They are held to a higher level of conduct. They are not exempt under any circumstances. No officer should be on duty if they are on
opiates.
Under treated pain is not going to lead a seasoned police officer to steal drugs. Unfortunately, addiction will.
“Under treated pain is not going to lead a seasoned police officer to steal drugs.”
While I would hope I would never become that desperate as to steal narcotics, I have learned to never say never. Severe unrelenting pain has one thing in common with addiction – both can make the most upstanding law abiding citizen desperate for relief.
Could she be an addict? Sure, it’s quite possible, but I’m also willing to think that, maybe, just maybe this person was experiencing unrelenting severe pain, which made her desperate.
I’ve had two very severe acute pain episodes (one was an ectopic pregnancy that ruptured within my tube, along with an ovarian cyst rupture (same side) and the other was an ovarian cyst rupture (other side a few years later – both causes severe internal bleeding – one required emergency surgery while the other required me to be hospitalized for a few days).
The first one resulted in an ER Dr assuming I was a “drug seeker.” She sent me home where I had bled over 40% of my body’s blood supply into my abdomen and endured pain that I never imagined could be real. So much so that it has basically traumatized me. The second one resulted in me lying in a bed in the ER for over four hours while in so much pain, I literally could not communicate with anyone.
As a law abiding citizen, if the only relief I could have accessed was “illegal” and considered “immoral,” would I still have attempted to access that relief? You better believe it. Animals have been known to gnaw their injured limbs off. Humans affected by CRPS have been known to wish for a surgeon to amputate their limb(s) affected by CRPS.
What makes you so sure that during the worst unimaginable pain episode that never relented and never saw any hope for healing or a cure or even a reduction in pain intensity, you could bypass any attempt at relief simply because it was “against the law?” An animal gnawing their own injured limbs off goes against nature, making that animal desperate. A human wishing for the amputation of a limb goes against nature, making that human desperate. Until you’ve been there, done that, you truly have no idea what you would do in those same circumstances.
OMG,,,obviously Hope,,u have never ever been in FORCED physical pain have u??mary
mary, I have been on opiates for chronic pain for many,many years.
Doctors know more than they have in the past about opiates. Especially high dose opiates and opiates combined with certain other drugs. There are a small number of doctors speaking out against the new guidelines. But, the vast majority are in favor of them. Unfortunately some tell their patients they are not.
Again,,the factual truth is,,,IT IS LITERALLY A IMPOSSIBILITY FOR ANYONE TO PHYSICALLY FEEL THE PHYSICAL PAIN OF ANOTHER,,THUS BEFORE DR.GOVERNMENT,,,, OUR DOCTORS GAVE US WHAT WE NEEDED,,KNOWING THEY COULD NOT PHYSICALLY FEEL THE PHYSICAL PAIN OF ANOTHER,,,NOW HERE COMES BULLY DR.GOVERNMENT TELLING ALL OUR DOCTORS,DISPLAYING TO ALL OUR DOCTORS ARRESTED INNOCENT DOCTORS LOOSING EVERYTHING,,OUR DEA TELLING OUR DOCTOR EITHER U DROP THOSE MEDICINES OPIATES OR WE ARREST U,,AND U LOOSE EVERYTHING,,,,,IT HAS NOTHING TO DO W/SOME PROPAGANDA ABOUT HIGH DOSE OPIATES AND DOCTORS KNOWING ANYTHING DIFFERENT,,,THATS PROPAGANDA HOPE,,DOCTORS ARE PRESCRIBING LESS OUT OF FEAR FROM ITS OWN GOVERNMENT THEE ONLY REASON HOPE,,,BUT AGAIN,IT IS FACTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR ANYONE TO FEEL THE PHYSICAL PAIN OF ANOTHER,,,,SO WHY DOES ANYONE THINK THEY HAVE THE RITE TO DECIDE WHO GETS TORTURED TO DEATH BY DENYING THEM THE MEDICINE THEY NEED TO LIVE LIFE???NO-ONE HAS THAT RITE,,,BUT OUR GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE LIKE MINDED OF YOUSELF,,,THINK THEY HAVE THE RITE TO DECIDE FOR OTHERS,,HOW MUCH FORCED PHYSICAL PAIN WE ARE TO FORCIBLE ENDURE,,,THATS TORTURE,,,,maryw