G.F. 323
T
0003230
22.
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9
The victims of the trade --
those convicted only
of simple possession of small amounts, or of consumption are another matter. Mass treatment is the appropriate
A later paper remedy for them, not mass penal sanctions.
in this series deals with possible means of providing it.
Recommendations.
(£)
23.
There are from time to time public pleas that harsher penalties should be prescribed in legislation. But there are such strong objections of principle to mandatory minimum sentences that they should only be contemplated in the most exceptional circumstances. cannot be recommended at present.
24.
They
trafficking,
There is less objection to wider use of corporal punishment. That it is dreaded is beyond doubt; so it could prove a valuable deterrent, if extended to the principal drug offences committed for profit manufacturing, storage, permitting premises to be used and keeping a divan. It is therefore recommended that Sections 4, 5, 6, 7, 35 and 37 of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap. 134, be added to Part I of the Schedule to the Corporal Punishment Ordinance, Cap. 222.
25.
Amongst the pleas made for harsher penalties, has been that maximum fines be increased from $100,000 to $1,000,000 on the ground that this would contribute
There is materially to curbing the illegal drug trade.
and anyway no basis for believing that it would do so; the stiff financial penalties now provided under the Ordinance are rarely applied in major cases, deterrent prison sentences presumably being deemed adequate. the other hand, even $100,000 is a small sum in comparison to the profits from this trade so there should be some presentational advantage in an increase.
On
Moreover one
way of hitting the trade would be by very substantial fines; and if a major organiser were ever convicted, he should, if possible, be fined enough to really hurt.
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