criminal-law england-and-wales drugs
Is distribution of drugs in itself a crime?
<p>You always seem to hear of people being done with &quot;possession with intent to distribute,&quot; rather than actual distribution. Why is this?</p>

<p>Yes, distribution of controlled drugs is itself a standalone offence.</p>
<p>Under the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1971/38/section/4" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>Misuse of Drugs Act 1971</em>, s. 4(1)</a>, it is an offence to supply or offer to supply a controlled drug to another. And <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1971/38/section/37" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>supplying</em> includes distributing</a>.</p>
<p>Possession with intent to supply is also an offence. <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1971/38/section/5" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Section 5(3)</a> makes it an offence for a person to have a controlled drug in their possession, &quot;with intent to supply it to another.&quot;</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/drug-offences" rel="nofollow noreferrer">The Crown Prosecution Service says</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Where the evidence supports a charge of supplying or possessing controlled drugs of any class with intent to supply, this is to be preferred to a simple possession charge.</p>
</blockquote>

<p><a href="/questions/tagged/united-states" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;united-states&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;united-states&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="united-states-container">united-states</a></p>
<p>Media descriptions often diverge from the wording of statutes. The Washington law, <a href="https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=69.50.401" rel="nofollow noreferrer">RCW 69.50.401</a> says that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Except as authorized by this chapter, it is unlawful for any person to
manufacture, deliver, or possess with intent to manufacture or
deliver, a controlled substance.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The wording poses an interpretive problem. It is clear that possessing with intent to manufacture or deliver is included in the crime (&quot;deliver&quot; is actually <a href="https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=69.50.101" rel="nofollow noreferrer">defined</a> as &quot;the actual or constructive transfer from one person to another of a substance, whether or not there is an agency relationship&quot;, thus &quot;deliver to yourself&quot; is not &quot;delivery as defined in this chapter). This distinguishes possession with intent to deliver from simple possession.
The wording might also be thought to also include a restriction on &quot;manufacture&quot; i.e. only manufacture with intend to deliver, vs. &quot;simple manufacturing&quot; (for personal use), but this is highly implausible, first because of the lack of a comma indicating that &quot;with intent to manufacture or deliver&quot; applies to all three conjuncts and not just the last one, second (relatedly since the interpretative principle &quot;the last antecedent rule&quot; limits the modifier to the last conjunct, third because such an interpretation would be pointless (&quot;manufacture with intent to manufacture; deliver with intent to deliver&quot; would be pointlessly redundant. Finally, the phrasing
&quot;possess with intent&quot; exists because there is a <a href="https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=69.50.4013" rel="nofollow noreferrer">separate lesser crime</a> of simple possession, so this statute has to be written to specifically identify mere <em>possession</em> as not subject to <em>this</em> penalty.</p>
<p>As to why the law was modified to impose a lesser penalty on simple possession, that's a question of historical politics, but probably relates to the idea that consumers are less culpable w.r.t. a wrong than the promulgators of the wrong.</p>

<p><a href="/questions/tagged/germany" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;germany&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;germany&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="germany-container">germany</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/btmg_1981/__29.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Trade (Handel), Import, Sale (Verkauf), handing out (Abgabe), and buying (kauf) of any drug under the BtmG without a license is punishable under BtMG §29</a>. Especially <em>sonst in den Verkehr bringt</em> (any other means to put in distribution) is the catch-all phrase in this regard: you let them sit on your counter for anyone to take? You put them in distribution by any other means, and thus can be punished with up to 5 years under §29(1).</p>
<p>So <strong>yes</strong>, in Germany any form of distributing drugs without license is a criminal act.</p>
