DRUG OFFENCES Trafficking a dangerous drug s 5 (1) A person who carries on the business of unlawfully trafficking in a dangerous drug is guilty of a crime. Elements, a person who: 1. Carries on the business. > R v Quaile [1988] 2 Qd R 103 Macrossan J - trafficking means trading in or dealing and a single sale can be sufficient if infers intention to repeat - but generally requires continuity, so an ongoing distribution system. Ambrose J - first transaction of a distribution system is enough. Ambrose J at [116] 'that to prove an accused person has trafficked in a drug it must be shown that he or she has knowingly engaged in the movement of the drug from its source to the ultimate user of it in the course of an illicit trade and this is so whether or not any such act was performed for reward or on only an isolated occasion at the request of the ultimate user. Proof of the offence involved showing that there has been some movement of the drug at the instance of the accused person at the relevant time and that the movement had some commercial connotation.' > R v Elhusseini [1988] 2 Qd R 442 Connolly J at [445] 'Carrying on the business of trafficking in any substance must include all acts which are part of such a business including negotiations for further outlets and it cannot be confined to sales of the substance. True it is the expression 'carrying on' in relation to a business implies a degree of continuity and on occasions it has seemed important to identify the intention with which a commercial transaction was carried out in order to see whether it was, or was part of the carrying on a business.' McPherson J at [450] trafficking is 'knowingly engaging in the movement of drugs from source to ultimate user, ordinarily an element of commercial enterprise is involved, carrying on a business, particularly where the subject matter of that business is goods or services, usually involves a series of activities, such as advertising, or promoting the ‘product' by communicating with prospective buyers, setting up lines of supply, negotiating prices and terms of supply and payment, soliciting and receiving orders, arranging for places and times of delivery etc. They involve conversations because it is scarcely possible to carry on business without communication of some kind.' summarised by McPherson J at [454] and includes: · Advertising, communicating, setting up supply lines, negotiating prices, soliciting and receiving orders, arranging deliver times and places 2. Unlawfully trafficking;
unlawfully means without authorisation, justification or excuse by law (as per s 4 of the Act). R v Quaile [1988] 2 Qd R 103 it was held that 'trafficking': · conveyed notions of trading in or dealing with; . If a person disposes of a drug, that is sells it, he or she is trafficking whatever the point in the chain of distribution. There is no onus upon the prosecution to prove