COURT: Defendant, you have been convicted on your own plea of guilty of an offence of trafficking in a dangerous drug contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap. 134 Laws of Hong Kong. The particulars being that you on 24 June of last year at 7th floor, Tak Cheong Building, 1001 Kwai Chung Road, Kwai Chung, New Territories, unlawfully trafficked in 78.72 grammes of a mixture containing 64.54 grammes of heroin hydrochloride.
The summary of facts which you have agreed are really quite straightforward and illustrate that early in the evening of 24 June of last year you were intercepted very close to your home carrying a sling bag, inside which were found the drugs contained in 21 separate packets, together with drug paraphernalia, such as electronic scales and the like. Under caution, you told the police that the drugs were for selling to others. In a subsequent video interview you told the police that whilst some of the drugs were for sale to others, part of them were for your own consumption. You also told them that you consumed heroin three times each day, taking 0.25 grammes each time.
You are clearly a drug addict. The prosecution accept this. You have a poor criminal record for drug abuse going back to the mid-70s. Upon your remand to Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre for the present offence in June of last year, you had a positive result for the use of opiates. You also have had and continue to have a number of quite serious health conditions which, no doubt, stem from your long term drug abuse.
Amongst the drugs that you carried by yourself when you were intercepted on 24 June last year were two large packets, each containing 28 grammes of heroin. It was put on your behalf that one of these bags, was for sale to others, whilst the other bag containing 28 grammes was for your own consumption and on the basis of the consumption rate that you had told the police about, this would have provided you with a supply of heroin for about a month. From the information that I have before me, I am prepared to accept this.
The guidelines for sentencing for trafficking in heroin are contained in R v Lau Tak Ming & Others [1990] HKLR 370 and for trafficking in quantities between 50 to 200 grammes, the normal starting point would range between 8 to 12 years imprisonment. Had all of the drugs in your possession been for the purposes of trafficking, this court would have adopted a starting point of 8 and a half years imprisonment. Accepting, as I do, that 28 grammes were for your personal consumption, you still had a large quantity of 36 grammes, or thereabouts, for sale.
Taking into account the amount of drugs that you had in your possession for sale and the comparatively large quantity for self-consumption, which carries with it a latent risk of passing into the hands of others, I propose to adopt a starting point of 7 years imprisonment.
You are entitled to a one-third discount in sentence which I will afford you, arriving at a sentence of 4 years and 8 months’ imprisonment.