It is a crime to carry on a business of unlawfully trafficking in a dangerous drug.
What exactly is trafficking?
Typically, “Trafficking” will involve selling drugs, but it also includes knowingly engaging in the movement of drugs from source to ultimate user.
This could include:
- Promoting the product by communicating with buyers
- Setting up lines of supply
- Organising delivery
- Soliciting and receiving orders for the product
- Negotiating the process (e.g., facilitate supply)
Generally, a single sale may be proved to have been carried out in such circumstances as to show that it was a part of the carrying on of a business. However, mere occasional sales of the drug could not amount to the carrying on of a business of selling it. “Carrying on a business” for present purposes signifies much more than a few isolated transactions.
The reward need not be money. For example, an addict could carry on a business though the only reward is drugs for personal consumption. And it is scarcely to be expected that a person who carries on an illicit trade (in heroin) would establish shop premises, have business cards, or advertise. It is not essential to the identification of a venture as a business that it have more than one customer.
