PORT TOWNSEND — The brother of a boy who died of a methadone overdose has been charged with delivering methadone a month after his brother died.
The 16-year-old Port Townsend boy, who attends Chimacum High School, was charged Monday in Jefferson County Superior Court with delivery of a controlled substance.
He is accused of giving a classmate three methadone pills in exchange for a cigarette on Sept. 5, 6 or 7, according to Jefferson County Superior Court documents.
Because he is a juvenile, his name is not being released.
The youth’s 17-year-old brother died in his sleep on Aug. 5.
An autopsy showed the cause was a methadone overdose, court documents show.
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Post wrote in a report he filed Friday that he planned to recommend the 16 year old be charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of his brother.
Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Juelie Dalzell said the evidence is insufficient to charge the boy with manslaughter.
“It could have been anyone in that house giving him that drug. Or he could have gotten it himself,” Dalzell said.
In the police report, Post wrote that the juvenile pulled the methadone pills from his mother’s locked safe, which was kept in the Port Townsend home where they lived.
The 17-year-old who died did not live in that home, but instead lived with his grandmother in Sequim, according to the report.
In the report, his grandmother said he rarely stayed in his mother’s home and that he didn’t appear to have a drug or alcohol problem, but that he did have asthma.
Methadone is the most common medication for heroin addiction treatment and also the most controversial.
“Methadone is so dangerous,” said Dalzell.
She said people often underestimate the drug’s potency and ingest too much.
The brothers’ mother had a prescription for methadone. She has not been charged with a crime, said Dalzell.
The prosecuting attorney said she will seek juvenile detention and drug treatment for the arrested youth.