BANGOR, Maine — A Bangor woman is facing a felony drug charge after a city police officer found the powerfully addictive painkiller oxycodone in her possession.
Ashley Lee, 24, came to the attention of Bangor police Officer Shawn Green shortly before midnight, when he spotted the gold PT Cruiser she was driving at Leadbetter Mini Stop on Hammond Street, Bangor police Sgt. Paul Edwards said, citing a police report.
Edwards said Green’s report noted that the car was seen in places where suspicious activity had occurred and decided to take a closer look. He believed the driver, Lee, was subject to search conditions from a prior unrelated arrest and asked dispatchers to confirm that.
In the meantime, however, Lee and her passenger, who was not charged, left the store, walked past the car they arrived in and kept going, leading Green to suspect they were trying to avoid him. They returned later to retrieve the car, he said.
A short time later, after confirming that Lee was in fact subject to a search, Green caught up with the car on Ohio Street. He and another officer ultimately found oxycodone in her possession, which led to a Class C felony drug possession charge. The officers also found a clonidine tablet, baggies containing white powder and residue as well as paraphernalia, such as needles and aluminum foil, Edwards said.
Wow, the police in Bangor really don’t have anything better to do than babysit this young girl. I doubt if she would have hurt anybody. We should lay off half of all our police forces and only focus on real crimes with actual victims. I suppose with so many police officers they just get bored and have to look for any petty crime they can find just to stay busy.
I know, it’s hard to see drug addicts taken off the street that someone you might love lives on. Maybe once had a nice to place to live until these people brought property value down. Considering Bangor cops work harder than most I’ll just go ahead and side with them. If you want you can go ahead and bail her out…she looks like she might need a friend like you. Where the hell have you been ? Have you not seen the crime this police force has had to deal with this past year alone ? If you read any news you would also be aware that they are down 7 + officers because they can’t get any new recruits to come work in this city. In fact fewer people are becoming cops because of attitudes like yours. The cop was doing his job. Maybe he was in some down time and was able to see this through. I am greatful he was doing his job, he could have just parked somewhere and screwed off if he was having a quiet moment.
Really hope you are being sarcastic! .. Needles, Tin Foil, Baggies.. this girl was booting up oxycodone. and driving. your okay with this?
Read his comment on the story about cocaine crossing the Canadian border. It will show you an even clearer picture of a pro drug attitude….
She didnt kill anyone. I suppose until she did your argument is redundant.
She probably does need to be babysat, considering she was picked up a couple of weeks ago on the same charges. I praise the police for keeping our city as clean as they can.
Drugs kill people every day. Don’t you read the paper or do you just read the headlines and then make you absurb comments.
Yeah, drugs do, but so dont lots of other things. Id probably wager that a good few people die every day because of really dumb crap like…. plastic bags. Should we truck all of our groceries by hand? What about our trash? People can jump of bridges and die, so should we get rid of all the bridges? Why is is that drugs just a really bad reputation? Lots of people use drugs responsibly, lots. Consider what art would be today without drugs. Consider where the human race would be without drugs. Drugs have always and will always be a part of human culture. Suppose we just have to learn to deal with it properly.
You do realize that she wasn’t caught with a dime bag of pot, right? She was caught with needles and oxycodone. The last thing any of us wants is someone like that driving around our neighborhoods.
Heyo, Im going to be the first person to agree with you. She hurt no-one. I just dont see the issue, here. Well, I see the issue and by that I mean I see a giant brainwashed mob, but I dont understand why her life is ruined partly because of irrational drug policy and enforcement. I suppose unless she did something violent or dangerous Id consider her pretty tame. Ive been learning about lots of armed robberies, lately. Maybe they should do a little more leg work on those instead of staking out some kid who’s having a hard time.
She must be your crack supplier…
Why don’t you get your doughnuts and coffee and go look for some real criminals
Last time I checked, using drugs was criminal.
Lol. Wow…. Just… wow…. Obvious fact is obvious. Way be to be, chief… You go to college to figure that out?
Doesn’t mean they should be and doesnt make drug users “real” criminals. Im pretty sure he means violent criminals, you know people who are a danger to others and not some washed up drug addict girl who is only hurting herself.
Only hurting herself? I wonder if her family or friends would agree with you on that one. I wonder if she has any kids? If so, I wonder if they’ve been taken out of the home by DHHS?
Drug addiction is NOT a ‘victimless” crime. It’s just not.
Maybe. Too many maybe’s and not one for sure.
That’s exactly the point. We don’t know how many people her drug addiction has affected.
You been a victim of drug addiction, suffered greatly because of someone who’s life has been consumed by drugs? Cause I have. I dont need a lesson. My point here is that violent crime is often treated with less attention then drug related crime. People get years and years for drugs while other people get months for assault or sex crimes. Something is wrong, here. Whatever her situation may be I have no idea, but I do know that despite the harm drugs can cause much of that harm isnt directly related to the drugs themselves. Its not the drugs that are to blame. Its some of the people who use them and the policy which is harmful. And who knows what her deal is. Id wager her family don’t care and her friends were waiting for her to get back with the gear. Sucks to be them.
Yes. And I see the results of drug abuse nearly EVERY day. My intent is not to give a ‘lesson.’ My intent is to call bs on drugs being a ‘victimless’ crime. It’s not.
I live the results of drug abuse every day but I still dont point the finger at drugs. Its some people who choose to use them which are to blame. A lot of drugs are victimless crimes. A lot. And its really only policy which makes victims and crimes of drugs anyway. Perhaps we should take a look at rational ways of reducing the problem instead of steadily upping punishment and enforcement, as obviously that isnt working, at all. Never has, not in the last 3 decades, not once… Some people do get out of hand and cause damage to those around them, but is emotional damage really a crime? In strict terms, the only crime occurs when people get caught with the drugs, making the user a victim themselves. Drugs are here to stay. That’ll never change. The only thing that can change is our attitude towards them. We can be rational and accept that drugs can be bad but also can be good, we can accept the fact that some people cant handle them and that some drugs are more dangerous then others and we can accept that they are here to stay and adjust accordingly as a society, or we can keep at this war and continue to waste billions of tax payer dollars accomplishing nothing… We still have drugs, but someone’s made billions of dollars… and therein lies the root of the problem.
I’m talking about drug abuse not simple use as directed. Of course drugs won’t go away, and I’m pretty sure that as long as Big Pharma keeps pushing them, it’ll only get worse.
Still, how do we ‘adjust accordingly’? I don’t follow you there.
If we decide as a society to legalize them, or to not hold abusers accountable for their actions because they just cause “emotional crime” then who’s going to help, let’s say, their children when DHHS hauls them out and sticks them in a series of foster homes?
That happens daily. That’s not something that “may” happen. That’s something that does happen. The cycle perpetuates as those children grow up and continue the dysfunction. Are you aware of how many billions of tax dollars we already waste with wasted people? And by ‘wasted’ I mean dysfunction in perpetuity. Yes, absolutely, “emotional damage” to a child is indeed a crime.
So true. It definitely affects family members, friends, and the entire community. I have seen countless children’s lives ruined because of the exposure to drug abuse (often accompanied by domestic violence, crime, neglect, and sexual abuse) in their homes. Even if she doesn’t have children, who pays for it when she ends up in the ER due to an overdose? Who pays for it when she smashes into someone else’s car and kills someone? Who does it affect when she goes into the local drug store to rob them b/c she is so desperate for her opiates?
The Bangor area has the HIGHEST percentage NATIONWIDE for babies born to moms who are addicted to opiates. Who pays for the care of those babies who have to be weaned off the opiates while they go through withdrawals? Mainecare. This is not a problem that only affects the individual.
Exactly! Thank you for saying it. It never ceases to amaze me how people can’t see that.
You can also add the costs to place those children in special services throughout their school years. At some point we have to hold people accountable for their actions.
If they seek help, by all means, give it to them. If they are busted for doing or selling drugs while getting that help, then it’s time to put the hammer down. They will NOT cease from doing the action if people keep enabling them.
sad thing is is that MaineCare pays for all these prescription drugs the docs pass out like candy.
Depends on the drugs, the circumstances, and the current state of the law. Codine and cocaine were legal in the 1930’s. Heroin was ignored as long as it stayed in “black neighborhoods” liquor and Valium (by prescription) are prolific in most wealthy US suburbs. Oxycodone, this young lady’s drug of choice, is legal if prescribed, but illegal for those without a “script.”
Some studies contend that the majority of people in the USA today have used marijuana (which has been illegal since 1928) at least once. Should all those people be in jail? Arrested? Have their names in the paper?
I don’t have any answers, but I do know that this argument is far from the black&white some folks attempt to paint it.
I’m all for treatment of addiction and spreading the danger of oxy, but laying in wait to catch this girl for a personal amount of pills, and then potentially making her a felon for the rest of her life? Come on. What if we treated mental illness the same as we do addiction.
She was just bailed out of jail either Thursday or Friday of last week on drug charges and also last week was indicted by the grand jury for theft and burglary charges. Obviously being out on the street doesn’t work for her.
Only because some men in suits said drugs are bad. The worst thing about drugs it that the fat cats made laws against them. Made up by chubby guys in thousand dollar suits, that have an interest in keeping them illegal. Not for health reasons, but to buy more thousand dollar suits. It’s a bigger business for the guys in suits, then any street level dealer.
You can say that you’ve seen what drugs have done to users and families. I would say that some people can’t handle some things. Alcohol, food, sex, speed, jumping from a plane, all things that people are addicted to that ruin self and family. All legal, so they are more excepted, but cause the same harm. To many laws.
So when there are too many addicts people complain the cops aren’t doing enough. When a DEA agent gets proactive and gets one with pills, white powder and contraband they are being too proactive.
I’m going to the office. This board had too many unempoyed fools that are making me dumber by reading the comments.
I was on site 3 hours before you went to the office! And just got home! Now it’s time to enjoy some pickens from last years garden.
You must be the engineer who draws out my blue prints in your office. Ooops wait, no, it’s not you.
See you at work tomorrow, too, if you have an office window…..
She’s making herself a felon, not the officers.They are just doing their jobs.These types of things are against the law.
Right, and thats why she is a felon. Because its against the law, so they arrested her. She didnt suddenly become a felon. Legislation made her a felon. So, it is the cops and the law thats doing it, obviously. Not sure how you thought otherwise, really. Drug war hysteria, if I had to guess.
I’m all for treatment too, but only as long as they aren’t getting their treatment and then doing/dealing drugs on top of it. Hello Bangor – wake up. There’s a reason those for PROFIT ‘clinics” keep opening up here. It’s not rocket science.
While there are many people who are truly working hard to beat their addictions, there are just as many working the system.
Where did she get that “personal amount of pills” and the needles? This girl clearly has been picked up before. She’s driving around with pills and needles in her car. I’d like to know what kind of car since I was nearly driven off the road by one of our resident “weavers” recently.
The officer was “laying in wait” because she just drove from a shady area of town. Honestly, I don’t know when people are going to come back from the land of delusion and realize that the drug problem in the Bangor area is ridiculously significant, and the shady areas of town are growing accordingly.
Maybe that arrest just saved her life.
She is subject to search, meaning she’s been in trouble with the law before. If you’re going to continue a lifestyle of using drugs, mayhaps you shouldn’t do it while on what sounds like probation?
Do minors do drugs?
If So Where do they get them?
It’s a plague that feeds upon it’s self always searching for a new host..
Without new young users incouraged by older drug users and dealers there would be no problems.
So for you people who seem to think it is a victimless addiction your wrong….
These drugs are intended for the youth just like cigarettes, to keep the market alive.
What does your comment have to do with this story? I read it twice, and found no reference to “minor’s”. 24 is not a “minor” anywhere in the world.
Eating cake, or drinking beer are not Victimless vices either, but we (as a society) do not condemn them. Heart disease kills far more people than drugs.
…and youth keeps ALL markets alive…..eventually.
EBT cards
Such dead eyes, and only 24.
I think its sexy.
Wonder if she has a EBT card
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No just obsessed by welfare fraud and drug addits
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