09/01/1998

OF CRIMINAL APPEAL (INFERIOR)

DE GAETANO VINCENT

THE POLICE vs OMISSIS GISELA FEUZ

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DANGEROUS DRUGS ORDINANCE - IMPORTATION

By bringing a drug into Malta one is "importing" a dangerous drug for the purposes of the ordinance.Section 22 in this Ordinance is a general section dealing with offences and penalties; this provision distinguishes, for the purposes of punishment, between those offences which it considers the moreserious (where the punishment of imprisionemnt is mandatory and the court cannot apply a punishmentbelow the minimum established by law or otherwise suspend the term of imprisonment, and those whichit considers less serious. The former category includes, among others, all acts which consist in 'selling or dealng in a drug" contrary to the provisions of the Ordinance in question. Prior to 1986the law did not provide a defination of the word "dealing" and such term was therefore subject to interpretation. However, by Act VIII of the 1986 and, furthermore, by Act VI of 1994, the legslatorgave a specific meaning to the word dealing which included, amongst other things, importation.