Application of Criminal Law and Misuse of Drugs Act

The provided assignment involves analyzing the application of the Criminal Law Act 1967 and the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 in a specific case scenario involving John, Len, and Harry. The students are required to understand the legal implications of injecting a controlled drug into an innocent person's body and leaving them on a pavement. The assignment also touches upon criminal negligence and its consequences under the Criminal Law Act 1967. It is recommended that students be aware of the facts and figures related to the case involved in order to apply the law correctly and provide fair treatment to all parties involved.

Criminal law

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
ISSUE..............................................................................................................................................1
LAW................................................................................................................................................1
APPLICATION...............................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. This law is related to conduct
perceived as threatening, harmful or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety of
people inclusive of one's self. The Criminal Law Act, 1967 is an act of parliament of the United
Kingdom. The act has three parts, Part 1 abolished the distinction between felony and
misdemeanour and make consequential provisions. Part 2 abolished a number of obsolete crimes
and Part 3 contains supplementary provisions. In this project report identification of issues
arising in relation of criminal law will be mentioned (Aliverti, 2012). Application of various
legislation and strengths and weaknesses in application of the law to facts will be elaborated.
ISSUE
In the given case scenario John, Len and Harry are going off into the town to celebrate
Len's birthday. John and Harry are drug addicted from long time and gives treat of heroin to
Harry who is not a drug user for birthday. Harry was not aware how to use it and Len prepares
drugs for him and injected in his arm. Unfortunately, drug turns out to be laced with arsenic and
Harry staggers into the street and collapses. John and Len are scarred of getting trouble and run
off leaving Harry lying on the ground. In the given case this activity or issue turned out to be
criminal.
Together with this issue some other issue are noted in the given case scenario. As an off-
duty policemen sees Harry has collapsed and lying on pavement but ignored him because he was
getting late for birthday party. Edward the person responsible for operating barrier at the crossing
is engrossed in football match on TV and does not close the barrier. This results in accident of
bus in which John and Len was travelling back to home. The bus driver is killed outright in the
accident when tram hits the bus.
LAW
Government of UK made use if drugs as an illegal activity. To control number of illegal
activities related to drugs that are controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act, 1971. In the given
case scenario John bough some drugs named as heroin. It is unlawful to have possession of drugs
without having nay legal permission (Bhattacharyya, 2013). As per section 5 of Misuse of Drugs
Act it will for an element that constitute the offence of possession. As it is in the control of John
and he is aware about existence of the drugs with him. The drugs that he possess is a control drug
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and will be a unlawful activity by John. Len and John both are drug users from past many years
and keeps on purchasing it for consumption although it is illegal. When they purchased heroin
and gives it to Harry as birthday treat is also illegal activity. As per drugs act it is a criminal
activity to purchase some drugs which is controlled by government. As per specified rules under
Misuse of Drugs Act, 1971 no person is authorised to have drugs that are banned. Together with
this Harry who doesn't consumes drugs before this was taken it for the first time. Len one of his
friend who injected this drug in this arm performed another criminal activity of injecting illegal
drugs in someone body. As per legal rules that helps to control criminal activity this will be
termed as a criminal activity (Feeley, 2017).
When heroin is lacked with arsenic and Harry staggers into the street and collapses both
of his friends left him their and run away. By not giving basic first aid he turns out to be dead
and that makes this drug abuse case into some Criminal Act. As both Len and John was aware
about reactions that a can can do to a human body and they do not wants to be in any trouble and
left Harry behind. This become a reason behind death of Harry who was innocent and not aware
about drugs and its reactions. As per Criminal Law Act, 1967 both of the will be punished for
performing an illegal activity that leads to death of innocent. Punishments to them will be
granted not only under criminal law but as under Misuse of Drugs Act, 1971 for keeping drugs
and consuming it. When Harry was taken to hospital then it was conformed by doctors that if
treatment is provided to him in a short while then he can be saved. This puts Len and John into
more critical situation of breaching two laws one is Criminal and other one is Misuse of Drugs.
Imprisonment up to seven years and an unlimited fine or both will be charged on both John and
Len as per drugs act. Punishment as per criminal law will be granted to them by keeping various
other issues in mind by judge that gives justice to Harry's death.
An off-duty policeman who ignored Harry will also have done unethical activity. As he is
a person who is in public service needs to perform his duty whether he is on or off to duty. This
act will be termed as breach of duty by policeman (Henry and Powell, 2016). Edward the
person responsible to operate the barrier at the crossing was so involved in football match and
forgot to close the barrier. This leads to an accident and driver of the bus involved in accident
looses his life. This is completely a case of ignorance and negligence. It plays minor role in
criminal liability as it is used as the basis of some driving offence but this has largely been
superseded by recklessness. This is considered as negligence on the part of barrier operator
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because it is his duty to perform his duty on time. As mismatch in time to perform his duty may
leads to some unforeseen accidents that may endanger life of humans. The activity in which
negligence possess risk of death of some innocent is amount to a criminal act or omission. The
defendant Edward is in the breach of duty of care towards the victim who has died in accident
(Lynch, 2014).
APPLICATION
United Kingdom is large and quite widespread that involves humans with different
nature. Amount of criminal activity increases with number of life that existed in the nation. It is
quite important to control and influence humans to live a life with minimum crimes. For this
Criminal Law Act, 1967 is introduced in the country. Under this act a full elaboration regarding
all the criminal acts is provided. A law or act that is designed by government of the country and
passed by parliament is quite simple and designed in a manner that is beneficial to country as a
whole. Application of law becomes easy and provides strength as proper legal system is
developed by government of the country. Their are various authorities that deals with issues
related to criminal activities (Wall, 2015). A legal system is designed in UK with proper
hierarchy that made it easy to implement various laws and act.
As per the case scenario that is provided in the report it can be seen that application of
law is strength to have proper legal system throughout the nation. Each individual before
performing any activity which is not legal is quite afraid of being punished by law and that may
reduce rate of criminal activity in UK. As law relate to Criminal activity in the given case helps
to deal with the issue in more effective manner that leads to provide justice to all the persons
involved in a case. A strong legal system in the country helps in maintaining peace and gives
gives citizens a life which is quite safe and secure (Nichols, 2012). As strict rules and regulations
regarding drugs that are made by government reduces its consumption in legal manner. Together
with this non availability of drugs in easy manner helps many innocent peoples to be away from
these bed habits. A effective legal system which makes country free from crime or reduces crime
rate is termed as strengths for organisation.
It is not right to say that a good legal system is always be termed as strength for the
nation. This statement can be proved by considering various facts that are involved in the given
case scenario. As John and Len both individuals perform an act which is illegal that is
consumption of drugs that is banned by government of the country. Government of the country
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possess strict rules that made consumption of drugs not a easy task. Instead of this legal system is
not efficient that can abolish drug abusing system in the country. As there are availability of
sellers and buyers and this is turned out to be a weakness in the application of the law. A strict
legal system that gives punishment for breach of duty or for performing various illegal activity
made each person so petrified to be caught by cops and they try to escape from any situation that
leads to punishment. As in the given case John and Len both left Harry on the pavement after
making him consumption of the drugs. This is because they do not want to be in a situation that
puts them into some difficult situations (Turner, 2012).
In R v Adomako [1994] case the appellant was an anaesthetist in charge of a patient
during an eye operation. During the operation an oxygen pipe become disconnected and patient
died. In the given case the jury convicted him of gross negligence manslaughter. A gross
negligence test was arranged to ascertain whether or not the defendant has been in breach of duty
of care towards the victim who has died. In the given case it was held that it is a case of
negligence that involves breach of duty. This above case scenario can be connected with the
issue that is given in the report. As Edward who was appointed as barrier operator do not
perform his duty and negligence of work leads to accident and an innocent died. This is a
criminal act of negligence (R v Adomako, 1994).
Law is designed to deal with various issues involved in particular case. To apply law on
various issues it is highly recommended to be aware regarding facts and figures of the case
involved. Application of the case will be termed as strength because all the activities are
specified in the law in a precise manner that leads to fair treatment to all those who are involved
in the cases. Weakness in application of law is that day by day despite of having strict legal
system rate of criminal activity is increasing. Their is variation in type of crimes that are reported
in past with the current situations. A legal system that provides law to resolve new issue needs to
introduce to remove weakness in the legal system of the country.
CONCLUSION
From the given case scenario of the report and by considering various facts related to
criminal law and misuse of drugs act a statement that helps to resolve issue is made. To provide
any legal solution or advise that is based on research all the criminal activities and breach of duty
in the given case is considered. As John and Len bough drugs that are controlled by government
which is one legal activity. Injecting that drug in the body of Harry who was innocent by Len is
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another criminal activity. Leaving Harry on the pavement when drugs caused reaction to avoid
any legal interruption is one of the biggest mistake they both made. These all are the criminal
activity that will be punished under Criminal Law Act, 1967 and Misuse of Drugs Act, 1971.
Edward who do not operate barrier on time and that leads to unnatural death of bus driver will be
held liable of criminal negligence and punishment will be provided as per Criminal Law Act,
1967 by considering various other situations.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Aliverti, A., 2012. Making people criminal: The role of the criminal law in immigration
enforcement. Theoretical Criminology. 16(4). pp.417-434.
Bhattacharyya, R., 2013. Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013: Will it ensure women's safety
in public spaces?. Journal Space and Culture, India. 1(1). pp.13-26.
Feeley, M., 2017. The concept of laws in social science: A critique and notes on an expanded
view. In Crime, Law and Society (pp. 19-45). Routledge.
Henry, N. and Powell, A., 2016. Sexual violence in the digital age: The scope and limits of
criminal law. Social & Legal Studies. 25(4). pp.397-418.
Lynch, G. E., 2014. Our administrative system of criminal justice. Fordham L. Rev. 83. p.1673.
Nichols, P. M., 2012. The business case for complying with bribery laws. Am. Bus. LJ. 49.
p.325.
Turner, J. I., 2012. The expressive dimension of EU criminal law. The American Journal of
Comparative Law. 60(2). pp.555-583.
Wall, D. S., 2015. The Internet as a conduit for criminal activity.
Online
R v Adomako. 1994. [Online]. Available through:
<http://e-lawresources.co.uk/R-v-Adomako.php>
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