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A Missoula man who robbed a pharmacy of the narcotic painkiller oxycodone was sentenced Tuesday to five years in the Montana State Prison without parole, three years in the custody of the Department of Corrections and 17 years on probation.

Joseph M. Raisanen, 24, held up the Sav-Mor Drug store on South Third Street West last May, brandishing a pistol that turned out to be a BB gun. He forced the store's pharmacists to fill a bag with the pain medications OxyContin and oxycodone, and later told police that he committed the robbery because he is addicted to opiate painkillers and could sell them for money, court records state.

Detectives estimated the drugs' street value at around $50,000. On the street, oxycodone typically sells for $1 per milligram.

Raisanen pleaded guilty last week to felony charges of robbery, tampering with evidence and possession of dangerous drugs, all felonies.

At Tuesday's sentencing hearing in Missoula District Court, one of the pharmacists who was on shift when Raisanen robbed the drugstore said she had never been so frightened in her life.

“I want you to know that your actions have changed my life,” said Julie McFarlane. “I have never been so scared. I didn't know whether your gun was real or fake. I would not wish the events that I encountered on anyone.”

District Judge Robert L. “Dusty” Deschamps III accepted a plea agreement worked out between Raisanen, his attorney Lance Jasper and Deputy County Attorney Jason Marks. Marks said the agreement “both punishes the defendant for what he did and provides him with treatment so he can hopefully re-enter society.”

Raisanen will have access to standard chemical dependency treatment programs while in prison. In the three years after his release, Raisanen must enter an inpatient treatment program and an aftercare program.

Reading to the court from a handwritten letter, Raisanen said, “I would have never done anything like this if I had been sober and thinking with a clear head.” He also apologized to McFarlane and another pharmacist who was working at the time of the robbery.

Deschamps warned Raisanen that if he violated the conditions of his probation he would go to prison for the remainder of his 17-year suspended sentence.

“If I see you in eight years and you haven't learned anything, I'll send you to prison for the remainder of that 17 years,” Deschamps said.

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