A Clarenville father whose son died of an overdose last spring has taken his plea for justice to the steps of Supreme Court in St. John’s.

Jeff Butt’s son Lucas Lethbridge died last spring after ingesting cocaine laced with a foreign substance.

Butt insists the drug dealers responsible are well-known to police but there’s been no effort to investigate or lay charges against those who sold the drugs, or others who failed to call for help while his son was dying.

The grieving father has held more than a half dozen similar protests in Clarenville but says the time had come to move the lobby to Supreme Court.

He says criminal code changes are necessary to hold drug dealers accountable.

He says there’s nothing in the code linking drug charges to manslaughter causing death or negligence causing death or bodily harm, which is the change he’s seeking.

Butt says both he and his son filed complaints with the RCMP in the past but no action was taken.

He says the possibility of stiffer sentences is the only thing that will deter drug dealers from the kind of negligence that contributed to his son’s death.