GUILTY FL - Nicholas Block, 15, dies of drug OD, Sarasota, 18 June 2009

yes, Grace... that is absolutely disgusting. How sad. The poor kid never had a chance.
 
the article says he dropped out of middle school a year ago. where was CPS?

I wonder if they were living in this motel.

I agree the child never had a chance, and they have three more hopefully someone stepped in and removed the rest of the children from this he!! hole.
 
Oy vey! This is horrible. Fran is right - he didn't stand a chance with a mother like that. Not even getting into the stepfather, as mom allowed the around her kids. It's bad enough when kids get into trouble on their own with dope, or worse, if they get into mom and dad's stash, but to openly give drugs to their children . . . I'm just at a loss with this.

To be fair, I've known parents that smoke pot with their teenage kids, and that's definitely not cool, but these were hard drugs. People just don't start taking oxycodone unless they've been horribly burned or in excruciating pain from some injury or surgery. It's a major opiate-based narcotic. The nickname is "hillbilly heroin." How can anybody believe it would be a good idea to share that with their son or daughter? WTF was she thinking? Well, under the influence of oxys, coke and meth, I guess it's safe to say that she wasn't. I hope she has many years in prison to contemplate the "wisdom" of that ill-fated choice.
 
This article does beg the questions -- why? how? why?

http://www.sunnewspapers.net/articles/llnews.aspx?articleID=13373&bnpg=0

According to court records, Billy Jack has been arrested nine times in Sarasota and Charlotte counties in the past 10 years on charges including drug possession, resisting arrest, grand theft, fleeing an officer and driving with a suspended license. In May, he was charged with battery on a person older than 65, possession of a controlled substance without a prescription and possession of drug paraphernalia. His bond was revoked on those charges last Friday. According to North Port Police Chief Terry Lewis, more charges are pending. Linda Courtright is being held on $50,000 bond.


How was this man on the streets and doing drugs with his stepson? What does it take to actually be put in jail and remain there? I guess giving a fatal dose of drugs to this boy will finally get him off the steets. It should not have come to this.

Now 35-year-old Billy Jack Courtright's three children, ages 7, 9, and 10, have been placed in foster care, his stepson is dead, and he and his wife, Linda, are in the Sarasota County Jail on child neglect charges. Billy Jack is also charged with giving a controlled substance to a minor.

And these poor children saw this all and a new stage of trauma begins for them.
 
Such a sad thing to happen to a child. Parents should be put away and the key distroyed.
 
I try to keep an open mind, I really do. I have addiction in my family and have done my share of drugs when I was younger. I'll even admit to still smoking pot on occasion. But I can honestly say that no matter what drug I may have done, how much under the influence I may have been, at no time did the thought occur to me that it might be a good idea to turn my daughter on to it. She never knew I did anything other than pot, and was stunned when I told her when she was 22 that I had dabbled in drugs. I only told her that because she was dating a boy who was doing meth and I was worried she might try it. (She didn't, and broke up with him of her own accord.)

Maybe he just took something on his own. Could that be possible? I just hate to believe his mom did this to him. This really is bothering me. It would still be negligent, but not intentional. What a terrible case!
 
I try to keep an open mind, I really do. I have addiction in my family and have done my share of drugs when I was younger. I'll even admit to still smoking pot on occasion. But I can honestly say that no matter what drug I may have done, how much under the influence I may have been, at no time did the thought occur to me that it might be a good idea to turn my daughter on to it. She never knew I did anything other than pot, and was stunned when I told her when she was 22 that I had dabbled in drugs. I only told her that because she was dating a boy who was doing meth and I was worried she might try it. (She didn't, and broke up with him of her own accord.)

Maybe he just took something on his own. Could that be possible? I just hate to believe his mom did this to him. This really is bothering me. It would still be negligent, but not intentional. What a terrible case!

You raise some interesting points. I think it is certainly possible that he was around drugs all the time because of his parents obvious addiction issues and that his parents didn't give him dope so much as make it very easy for him to get.

If his Mom did give him drugs, I have to ask myself how that is different from the fact that one of my parents gave me my first drug, alcohol, when I was underage and I grew up in an environment where there was a lot of that drug available and I abused it like crazy. Some folks might think it is different in that alcohol is a legal drug and street oxy (but not doctor oxy!) is an illegal drug, but it's all the same thing when you are talking about setups of addiction and disaster.

Regardless of how it went down, I doubt either parent foresaw this sad outcome and that's not surprising because progressed addiction makes it difficult to see anything much past your next fix.
 
I have several problems with this case. By all accounts, this boy was looking for acceptance by his stepfather, who teased him when he didn't do drugs. According to the eyewitness, his stepfather and MOTHER gave him the drugs when he asked for them. I understand that drug-addicted people cannot exercise good judgement. However, there were others in the lives of this child and his siblings who KNEW they would not be well cared for in the custody of their parents. I'm sorry but, IMO, they are just as guilty as the parents in this boy's death. I just cannot understand how family members could let these children be put at such risk. It's on them as much as anyone else. JMO.
 
Drug addicts. Not monsters.

My prayers for this family.

Ahhh I don't think so. Anyone who indoctrinates their kids into this lifestyle and supplies them drugs are monsters. Good god. Can't people just look at a horrible situation like this and see it exactly for what it is without playing the devils advocate or trying to rationalize it?
 
drug addicts who turn there kids into drug addicts in turn are monsters
 
What a sad story....poor kid

I am glad they gave her 20 years and hope her hubby gets more

these people should never have children or be around children

that poor boy never had a chance :(
 
From October 2010:

http://www.ocala.com/article/SH/20101015/BREAKING/310159999

The North Port parents who gave their teenage son the oxycodone that led to his fatal overdose last year were sentenced to a combined 42 years in federal prison Thursday.

Billy Jack Courtright, 37, received a 27-year sentence from U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew for distributing oxycodone to his stepson Nicholas Block.

Courtright's wife Linda Linda, also 37, was sentenced to 15 years on the same charge.
 

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