‘Innocent mistake’: Family of Vancouver man detained in Georgia calls on Canadian government to help

Nika Rovensky is supposed to be studying for finals, but instead she’s trying to figure out how to get her brother out of an Eastern European prison.

Simon Rovensky of Vancouver was traveling to Georgia with a friend when he was arrested in the airport.

“He just disappeared,” Nika said.

“We literally did not know where he was, and we were just watching the hours tick by, really frantically because we just, we didn’t know, he just disappeared.”

The alleged crime? Drug smuggling. The drugs he’s alleged to have been smuggling: his own one-month supply of Adderall that he has been prescribed to treat his diagnosed ADHD.

His family says he had documentation, but officials wouldn’t accept it because it was in the wrong format.

The B.C. man, who has worked since he was 15 to help support his family, is now facing up to 20 years behind bars.

“He was carrying it in the orange container that you get from the pharmacy,” his sister said.

“It has his name on it, his doctor’s name on it.”

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Global Affairs Canada’s website has a caution for Georgia that says bringing certain medications into the country could have serious consequences. But his family says it’s near the bottom of the page, and not clearly visible.

“If there’s something as commonly prescribed as Adderall in Canada that can get you 20 years in prison in a foreign country, that should be the first thing that you read about in a travel advisory. That should be top of the page in bright red letters.”

Nika says she hopes this serves as a wake-up call for others, especially because many common medications are subject to the same heavy conditions.

This isn’t just for ADHD medication, it’s for your pain medication, for your SSRIs, which you know so many people are taking.

Simon’s family says the experience has been a nightmare, and it says Global Affairs has left them to fend for themselves.

Meanwhile, Simon spends 23 hours a day in a six-person cell.

“We feel really let down by the government,” she said.

“I think we all kind of hope that our government is there to protect us in these situations. His mental state isn’t good. It’s rapidly deteriorating, I would say.”

CityNews could not reach Global Affairs for comment. A GoFundMe has been launched to help cover legal fees and an impending fine, which Simon’s mother and youngest sister, who still live in the Lower Mainland, say is making a huge difference.

Even so, they say the experience has taken a serious toll on them, with his mom saying she was recently hospitalized with stress.

“We want him back home, and hopefully this whole situation will be over soon,” said Eva Rovenskaja, another of Simon’s sisters.

Simon hasn’t been convicted yet, but his family says they’ll learn his fate in the coming weeks.

“[This] is just so beyond reality,” Nika said.