CRIMINAL CASE NO. 180 OF 2011
COURT: The facts of this case indicate that you had in your possession for the purposes of unlawful trafficking a substantial quantity of ketamine in your premises in Tsing Yi. In addition to a significant quantity of drugs there were two piles of resealable plastic bags and a set of electronic scales which indicated that you were packaging drugs for sale. When you were arrested, you indeed told the police that you had bought the drugs and were planning on selling them to your friends to earn quick money.
Your counsel, Mr McGowan, urges two matters upon me: firstly, that you pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity; and secondly, that in the light of your criminal record and your antecedents, which shows you have been to a Drug Addiction Treatment Centre on three occasions, being last discharged in April 2010, some seven or eight months before this offence was committed, it is obvious that some of the drugs were intended for your own consumption. He points out that whilst you have a bad criminal record, you have never before been convicted of trafficking in dangerous drugs.
If I were to take a strictly mathematical approach to sentence in your case, the starting point for sentence for 246.65 grammes of ketamine narcotic would be slightly under 8½ years’ imprisonment. In view of your obvious role as an actual trafficker, in the sense of seller of drugs rather than a courier or storer of drugs, I would be entitled to take a starting point of 8½ years. But Mr McGowan is right. It would be almost inevitable that some of the drugs would, in light of your past history, have been for your own consumption though possession of drugs is also a serious offence.
I do not however think your own consumption would make a very significant or substantial difference to the quantity in which you were trafficking and, without evidence, I am not prepared to guess. Besides, you did not say anything to the police about any of these drugs being for your own consumption. Nevertheless, as a matter of commonsense I am prepared to adopt a slightly lower starting point to reflect that obvious possibility.
The starting point I do adopt, in all the circumstances, is one of 8 years’ imprisonment. You pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity and you are therefore entitled to a full one-third discount from that sentence. Accordingly, the sentence of the court is that you serve a sentence of 5 years and 4 months’ imprisonment.