the undercover journalist who bought the drugs should be charged too tbh...
while I'm not going to lose any sleep over here or the idiot friend getting trapped like that there were 3 people involved in this drug deal and the guy instigating it is just a private individual too - unless there is some specific exemption for journalists to buy drugs 'if its for a story' they ought to charge him too..
In general most laws are heavily linked to intent, the journalist had no intent to take or keep or distribute the drugs, what would you charge him with?
Why do undercover cops who buy drugs not get arrested also, are cops immune to the law, or is the act of buying drugs with no intent to do anything illegal, not itself a crime?
Legal possession of drugs involves knowledge.
A left luggage attendant holding a suitcase belonging to someone else may not know that the suitcase contains drugs, and will therefore not legally be in possession.
Intention is very important. Not everyone in possession of drugs will be guilty of an offence. Conveying a drug to someone who is entitled to have the drugs in their possession is not an offence. Nor is taking possession in order to destroy them.
A teacher, for example, confiscating cannabis could flush it down the loo. If, however, the teacher held onto the drugs, and did not destroy them, and offence of possession would be committed.
It's not black and white, but ultimately there is basically no crime when the intention is to hand over drugs to the police, or if you intended to destroy them. While an average buying who meant to use the drugs could easily say "I was just going to destroy them" that intention would be hard to prove, a journalist documenting his intention, likely with a boss who knows what he's doing, and recording/writing notes would be able to prove this intention most likely. The undercover cop this intention is also obvious.
Intent has a huge part to play in many crimes. Murdering someone in cold blood, or in defence or someone else, the act is the same, killing someone, the intent is entirely different. One you go to jail for life(well not these days), the other you walk away free(maybe even considered a hero), intent is the thing that separates the two acts of killing.
So while maybe a bit of a arse, the journalist really did nothing wrong. Of course he wasn't doing this for the good of the neighbourhood, or to prevent drug crime, but purely for a scandal involving a celebrity.
