Section 6(1)(d) - Supplies, administers or offers to supply or administer to persons under 18 years

Question 1

What is the penalty for 6(1)(d)?

Answer 1

Sec 6(1)(d) Misuse of Drugs Act 1975

8 years imprisonment

Question 2

What are the ingredients of 6(1)(d)?

Answer 2

1. No person shall -
2. Supply or administer

OR

Offer to supply or administer

3. Any Class C controlled drug to a person under 18 years of age.

Question 3

Supply

Answer 3

Sec 2 Misuse of Drugs Act 1975

Includes to distribute, give or sell.

Question 4

How is supply defined in S2 of MODA?

Answer 4

Supply includes distribute, give or sell.

Question 5

What else does the definition of supply extend to?

Answer 5

It includes conferring on the recipient the ability to use the drugs for his or her own purposes.

Question 6

What is administering?

Answer 6

Black’s Law Dictionary:

” … to direct and cause a … drug to be taken into the system” of another person.

Question 7

R v Maginnis (1987)

(It’s ‘mah friend’s Guinness. He was coming back to pick it up’).

Answer 7

“[Supply involves] more than the mere transfer of physical control … [it includes] enabling the recipient to apply the thing … to purposes for which he desires …”

Question 8

What is the key case law with regards to supply?

Answer 8

R v Maginnis (1987)

Question 9

What was the gist of Maginnis?

Answer 9

The House of Lords held that the return of drugs to the friend would have restored the friend’s ability to use the drugs for his own purposes, and the defendant therefore had the necessary intent for supply.

Question 10

What is distribution?

Answer 10

The supply of drugs to multiple people.

Question 11

When is distribution complete?

Answer 11

When the defendant has done all that is necessary to accomplish delivery of the drug to others.

Question 12

What is giving?

Answer 12

Giving involves the handing over or in some other way transferring an item to another person.

Question 13

When is giving complete?

Answer 13

When the recipient accepts possession, or where the drug is placed under the control of a willing recipient.

Question 14

What is selling?

Answer 14

When a quantity or share in a drug is exchanged for some valuable consideration.

Anything of value will suffice - for example exchanging a large quantity of cannabis for some real estate.

Question 15

What is the gist of R v Brown?

Answer 15

On hand / procured / mistakenly / deceitfully

Question 16

R v During (1973)

(During this time I can now offer to supply you drugs)

Application: offer to supply

Answer 16

“[An offer is] an intimation by the person charged to another that he is ready on request to supply to that other, drugs of a kind prohibited by the statute.”

Application: offer to supply

Question 17

R v Brown (1978)

(H G M C - High Girls Motorcycle Club)

Answer 17

The defendant is guilty in the following instances:

(1) offers to supply a drug that he has on hand
(2) offers to supply a drug that will be procured (that he can get) at some future date
(3) offers to supply a drug that he mistakenly believes he can supply
(4) offers to supply a drug deceitfully (cunningly), knowing he will not supply that drug.

**

“… The making of such an intimation, with the intention that it should be understood as a genuine offer, is an offence.”

Application: Offer to supply

Question 18

R v Brown (1978) (in reference to how an offer can be conveyed)

Answer 18

“… the making of such an intimation, with the intention that it should be understood as a genuine offier, is an offence.”

Question 19

R v Marr and Wilkinson (four propositions)

Answer 19

• Offer to supply is to be given its ordinary meaning and not any technical meaning.
• There may be more than one person guilty of ‘offering to supply’ in any one transaction.
• An intermediary/agent may be guilty of ‘offering to supply’ his/her own principal.
• Offer to supply in S6 and S7 of MODA has a wide meaning and includes an offer to arrange for someone else to hand over a drug to the person to be supplied

Question 20

How can an offer to supply be conveyed?

Answer 20

In any manner including by words, writing or gestures.

Question 21

Is it necessary for the Crown to prove the defendant had the capacity to supply the drugs?

Answer 21

No.

Question 22

Discuss proof of age and quote the key case law.

Answer 22

Where age is an essential element of a charge, the prosecution must prove the victim’s age at the time of the alleged offence, using the best evidence available to do so.

R v Forrest and Forrest (1970): “The best evidence possible in the circumstances should be adduced by the prosecution in proof of [the victim’s] age.”

Question 23

R v Forrest and Forrest

(Forest, trees, paper)

Answer 23

The best evidence possible in the circumstances should be adduced by the prosecution in proof of the victim’s age.

Application: proving age