Fomer pharmacist and Downtown Eastside landlord George Wolsey stands at the entrance to IHS Pharmacy in Surrey.
Photograph by: NICK PROCAYLO, PROVINCE
Five
a.m. at a McDonald’s parking lot at the Surrey end of the Pattullo
Bridge. March 18. A pair of headlights cuts through the emptiness.
The
driver pulls slowly into a parking spot. Brake lights flash red, tires
groan, the engine goes quiet. The car appears silver/white under the
street lights. Another car glides through the lot with a different
purpose: the 24-hour drive-thru. Breakfast.
The driver of the
silver/white car steps out, shuts the door and walks purposefully
towards the pharmacy at the opposite end of the darkened parking lot.
From
the outside, it doesn’t look like much, let alone a community pharmacy.
There is a steel door, and nothing else. But that’s what the homemade
sign on the door says it is: “IHS Pharmacy. Hours of Operation: Monday
to Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Sat, Sun and Holidays.”
There is a phone number. And near the top, in big block print: “NO
PUBLIC ACCESS.”
The driver cuts to the left side of the building
where there is a fenced-in car lot. He unlocks the gate and enters.
Moments later, he pulls out in a silver Toyota. He gets out, locks the
gate, and then drives off into the approaching dawn.
For several
days in late March, The Province monitored the morning operations at IHS
Pharmacy in response to persistent rumours alleging that notorious
former pharmacist and pharmacy owner George Wolsey was involved.
Well
known to the Ministry of Health and the College of Pharmacists of B.C.,
Wolsey’s past dealings with both authorities have included audits for
over-billing PharmaCare and investigations into methadone dispensing
abuses, including claims of financial kickbacks to patients. The latter
resulted in the suspension, and later closure, of one of his pharmacies.
In
2004, he was charged, along with the joint owner of a downtown
pharmacy, with fraud. Wolsey was acquitted of the charge, while his
partner, pharmacist David Rands, who has since left the profession,
pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years less a day in jail.
More
recently, Wolsey, who has been unlicensed to practise as a pharmacist
in B.C. since March 2010, has found himself wrapped up in a civil
dispute with 10 former tenants of the two rundown hotels he used to own
in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
Wolsey has told the presiding judge that he is too broke to pay the tenants more than $18,000 he owes them.
The
Pivot Legal Society, however, which is representing the tenants, is
expected to introduce evidence in court Monday in support of its
position that Wolsey has both the assets and the income to pay his
former tenants the outstanding money.
The Province traced the
rumours to IHS Pharmacy, situated in an industrial area, where
pharmacist Ian Sands, Wolsey’s former business partner in the
now-defunct Delta Pharmacy, is the listed pharmacy manager.
Much
as on the other days The Province observed IHS, on the morning of March
18 activity appeared to begin at 5 a.m. with the arrival of the
unidentified male and the car switch. A little over an hour later,
another car, a red one, pulled right up to the pharmacy’s door.
The
man who got out was wearing a hat, glasses and a large black winter
jacket. He walked slowly to the door. It was George Wolsey.
For
the next three hours, there would be a flurry of activity, including the
return of the driver of the silver Toyota and the arrival of another
unidentified man who drove a large white van out of the fenced-in car
lot.
Other cars pulled up and other people entered and left the
pharmacy, some staying longer than others. All the while, Wolsey moved
about, talking briefly to the drivers of the silver Toyota and white
van, going in and out of IHS, and at one point leaving, then returning,
in the red car.
At 8:56 a.m., the white van returned with six
passengers, all of whom entered the pharmacy. About 15 minutes later, at
9:10 a.m., all six passengers left the pharmacy, climbed into the white
van and drove off.
On another morning, the driver of the van
stood at the door, allowing a clear sightline inside. On that day, it
appeared that Sands, the listed manager, was dispensing prescriptions to
the passengers of the white van.
When contacted by The Province, a
woman who answered the phone at IHS Pharmacy said Sands wasn’t
“interested” in answering any questions. A further request for comment
on the relationship IHS Pharmacy has with Wolsey was not returned.
Calls to a cellphone number identified as Wolsey’s were also not returned.
The
College of Pharmacists of B.C., meantime, said they are not actively
investigating any of Wolsey’s current activities. But they encouraged
anyone who has a complaint relating to him to come forward.
“We
have an interest in ensuring that Mr. Wolsey is not engaging in
unauthorized practice,” said Mykle Ludvigsen, the director of public
accountability and engagement at the college of pharmacists.
“This
is something that we would take very seriously of anyone, regardless of
whether they have a bit of a history or not. If people have
information, we would urge them strongly to come forward with it.”
So just what is Wolsey up to?
That question may be answered best by one of his former associates.
The
way Kevin Weinmeister tells it, there are few people who get close to
George Wolsey. Weinmeister, 46, said he’s one of the few.
Their
relationship began in late 2010 when Weinmeister, who is on the
provincial methadone maintenance program, said he left the Downtown
Eastside with his girlfriend and moved to one of the houses run by Step
by Step, a registered recovery society in Surrey.
Wolsey, said Weinmeister, was the pharmacist who delivered the daily methadone doses and prescriptions to the house’s residents.
“It
was stipulated from the very beginning to go through him,” said
Weinmeister. “I tried to fight that because I had my own pharmacy. I
didn’t know what was going on at the time. But I clued in after a
while.”
Debbie Johnson, the operator of Step by Step, said they ended their professional relationship with Wolsey “some time ago.”
“We don’t use him any more,” she said. “And we haven’t for some time.”
Weinmeister
said he eventually became a house manager. And over time, he began to
develop a relationship with Wolsey and started working for him. Small
jobs turned into bigger projects such as clearing Wolsey’s property in
Langley and renovating Wolsey’s son’s condo.
By the summer of
2013, Weinmeister, who had left Step by Step, was starting to have
conversations with Wolsey about running one of the recovery houses the
former pharmacist is allegedly involved with.
According to
Weinmeister, Wolsey is directly involved with the Impact Housing
Society, which pitches itself in a brochure as “transitional mental
health housing,” and has at least three houses under its name.
Weinmeister took over a house in the 14000-block 72 Avenue.
“I
found out that the 72 house (72 Avenue) was empty and I was on the phone
with George, going, ‘Well what is stopping me from opening my own
house?’” said Weinmeister. “‘You pay the rent and I will get the clients
and I will bring them to you (for prescriptions).’
“He said,
‘That’s a good idea.’ The next day he phones me up and said: ‘Hey, the
72 house is ready to go, why don’t you take that one over?’”
Weinmeister
and his girlfriend moved into the house in December 2013. Under the
arrangement with Wolsey, their responsibilities included finding
residents, getting them on medication, and sending them to IHS Pharmacy
to fill their scripts, said Weinmeister.
In return, they would be
permitted to live rent free and, as payment, keep the monthly $450
rental payments, in the form of welfare cheques, provided by the
residents. He understood that rent to the property owner was to be
covered by Wolsey.
“That’s supposed to be the deal. [But I] never
got it,” said Weinmeister, admitting that he wanted a slice of all the
money he saw being made. “George seems to have got greedy and wanted to
keep all of it. That is when our dispute started.”
As proof of the
arrangement and later falling-out, Weinmeister showed The Province text
exchanges he claimed were between him and Wolsey and an Impact Housing
Society brochure. One of the text messages, identified as being sent by
Wolsey, mentions the growth of his “mental health business.”
A part of another one, also allegedly from Wolsey, says, “just get clients on meds.”
According
to the brochure, the Impact Housing Society is “a member” of the
U.S.-based National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI), something the
organization refuted when contacted by The Province.
“I checked
with our director of federal affairs, who is the housing expert on our
police team. He has never heard of them,” Bob Carolla, director of media
relations at NAMI, said in an email. “As a matter of policy, NAMI does
not endorse any product or service.”
The website address on the brochure is no longer active and the phone number goes directly to an automated answering machine.
Weinmeister
also provided The Province with a copy of the rental agreement IHS
residents signed, and took The Province on a tour of the 72 Avenue
house.
“There is no service, there is no recovery,” said
Weinmeister of the Impact Housing Society. “It is not recovery. It is a
flop house.”
There is also no hard paper evidence to link Wolsey
to IHS Pharmacy, the Impact Housing Society and its properties, or the
other recovery houses that Weinmeister alleges Wolsey is providing, via
IHS Pharmacy, with methadone and other prescriptions.
As for the 5
a.m. car switch, Weinmeister suspects it’s related to prescription
drops at different recovery houses. And the white van, he said, picks up
residents from different recovery houses and brings them to IHS for
their daily methadone dose and other prescriptions.
“He has people
that he convinces are going to get their pockets lined and then just
uses,” said Weinmeister. “He is smart enough to know how to get around
the law. But if there was someone willing to investigate properly … the
things I’ve found out just using the Internet … it blows me away.”
colivier@theprovince.com
