[Criminal Law] A Senior Attorney Explains Drug Offenses: Criminal Liability and Grounds for Sentence Reduction in Taiwan

By Ping-Hsuan Hsu, Senior Attorney at Zhe Lu Law Office, Taipei Office
LL.M in International Business Law at Erasmus University Rotterdam

Introduction

Drugs do enormous damage to public safety and to people’s physical and mental health. Taiwan has therefore long taken a tough stance on the manufacture, transportation, and sale of drugs, punishing them with heavy sentences. The law is not uniformly harsh, however. For defendants who meet certain conditions, it also allows the punishment to be reduced or even waived, so that the sentence fits the crime. This article explains in plain terms the criminal liability a person may face for transporting or selling drugs, and summarizes the grounds for sentence reduction most often applied in practice, so that readers can gain a complete and accurate understanding of the relevant law of Taiwan.

I. Criminal Liability for Transporting and Selling Drugs

1. Drug Categories and Statutory Penalties
Article 4 of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act classifies drugs into four categories based on their addictiveness, potential for abuse, and harm to society, and sets a separate statutory penalty for transporting or selling each category:
(1) A person who manufactures, transports, or sells Category 1 drugs faces the death penalty or life imprisonment. If life imprisonment is imposed, a fine of up to NT$30 million may also be imposed.
(2) A person who manufactures, transports, or sells Category 2 drugs faces life imprisonment or imprisonment of at least 10 years, and may also be fined up to NT$15 million.
(3) A person who manufactures, transports, or sells Category 3 drugs faces imprisonment of at least 7 years, and may also be fined up to NT$10 million.
(4) A person who manufactures, transports, or sells Category 4 drugs faces imprisonment of 5 to 12 years, and may also be fined up to NT$5 million.
As this shows, the penalties for transporting or selling drugs are severe across the board. Even for Category 4 drugs, the minimum statutory sentence is five years in prison, which reflects how seriously lawmakers view drug crimes.
2. Transporting Drugs: Elements of the Offense and Co-Principal Liability
(1) What “Transporting” Means
Under the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act, “transporting” means knowingly moving or conveying drugs with the intent to transport them, whether by sea, air, land, or any combination of these. Where someone carries small amounts of drugs on an occasional basis or over a short distance, the court may, depending on the actual circumstances, convict the person of drug possession instead, but only if the person had no intent to transport the drugs.
(2) Transporting Drugs for Yourself Still Counts
The offense of transporting drugs does not require that the drugs be moved on someone else’s behalf; moving drugs for yourself is also covered. So even if you buy drugs from abroad solely for your own use and have them mailed into Taiwan, you may still be guilty of transporting drugs.
(3) Buying Drugs Online from Overseas May Make You a Co-Principal
In practice, it is common for people to buy drugs online from sellers outside Taiwan and give the seller a delivery address to ship to. In this situation, the buyer and the seller share a common criminal plan and each carries out part of the cross-border shipment, so the buyer may be held liable as a co-principal (i.e., a joint offender) in transporting drugs.
(4) Transportation as a Continuing Act
The offense of transporting drugs does not require that the drugs actually reach their destination. What matters is whether the drugs have been set in motion, that is, whether the shipment has begun.
3. The Offense of Selling Drugs
To be guilty of selling drugs, a person must intend to make a profit (the subjective element) and must actually acquire drugs for resale or sell drugs (the objective element). In practice, the statutory penalties for selling drugs are the same as those for transporting drugs, and both depend on the category of the drug. “Selling” does not require that a sale actually be completed or that a profit be made. If a person has begun the act of selling, they may still be guilty of attempted drug sale even if the deal was never completed.

II. Grounds for Sentence Reduction in Drug Cases

Although drug offenses carry severe penalties, the law still provides several sentence-reduction rules that allow defendants who meet the requirements to receive lighter sentences. The most common grounds are described below:
1. Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act, Article 17, Paragraph 1: Revealing the Drug Source, Leading to Others Being Caught
(1) What the Law Says
Article 17, Paragraph 1 of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act provides: “Where a person who has committed an offense under any of Articles 4 through 8, 10, or 11 reveals the source of the drugs, and other principal offenders or accomplices are caught as a result, the punishment shall be reduced or waived.”
(2) Requirements
This reduction applies only if the defendant reveals the source of the drugs and other principal offenders or accomplices are actually caught as a result. If prosecutors or police already had the relevant information before the defendant came forward, the reduction does not apply. In other words, to receive the reduction, the defendant must be able to show a causal link between their statement and the capture of the other offenders.

2. Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act, Article 17, Paragraph 2: Confessing During the Investigation and at Trial
(1) What the Law Says
Article 17, Paragraph 2 of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act provides: “Where a person who has committed an offense under any of Articles 4 through 8 confesses during the investigation and in every trial, the punishment shall be reduced.”
(2) Requirements
This reduction applies only if the defendant confesses to the crime both during the investigation (questioning by police and prosecutors) and in every trial. “In every trial” means the defendant must confess at each level of the court proceedings (for example, both in the district court and on appeal). If the defendant confesses during the investigation but later takes back that confession at trial, the requirement is not met. The purpose of this provision is to encourage defendants to take responsibility for what they did and to save judicial resources.
(3) How Much the Sentence Can Be Reduced
This provision says the punishment “shall be reduced.” Under Article 66 of Taiwan’s Criminal Code, when a prison sentence is reduced, it may be reduced by up to one-half. Note that one-half is the maximum: the court has discretion in deciding how much to reduce, and the sentence is not automatically cut down to the lowest possible term.

3. Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act, Article 17, Paragraph 3: Minor Cases of Transporting Drugs for Personal Use
(1) What the Law Says
Article 17, Paragraph 3 of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act provides: “Where a defendant commits the offense of transporting drugs under Article 4 for their own use, and the circumstances are minor, the punishment may be reduced.”
(2) Legislative Purpose
This paragraph is a sentence-reduction provision designed specifically for people who transport drugs for their own use.
(3) Subjective Requirement: Intent to Use the Drugs Yourself
Beyond the objective requirement that the circumstances be minor, this reduction also requires that the person transported the drugs with the intent of using them personally. If a person took part in transporting drugs in order to receive a different drug as payment, and the drugs transported had nothing to do with the drugs they intended to use, then they did not transport the drugs with the intent of using them personally, and this reduction does not apply.
(4) Objective Requirement: Minor Circumstances
“Minor circumstances” means that the overall facts of the offense are relatively minor compared with people who transport large quantities of drugs over long periods. Relevant facts include the method used, the purpose, the weight of the drugs, the risk of harm or actual harm caused, whether the conduct was a one-time act or ongoing, and the person’s role in the operation. However, if objective factors such as the time period, number of times, types, and quantities of drugs transported clearly differ from occasional, small-scale transportation, the reduction does not apply, even if the person used drugs because of long-term physical or mental health problems. Furthermore, if a large quantity of high-purity drugs was transported and the person has prior convictions for selling or supplying drugs to others, there is still a risk that the drugs could be distributed, even if they were meant for personal use. In that case, the circumstances are not minor, and the reduction cannot be applied.

4. Criminal Code, Article 59: Circumstances That Clearly Warrant Sympathy
(1) What the Law Says
Article 59 of the Criminal Code provides: “Where the circumstances of an offense clearly warrant sympathy, and even the minimum punishment would still be too severe, the punishment may be reduced at the court’s discretion.”
(2) Standard for Applying It
This article applies only when the circumstances of the crime would, viewed objectively, evoke sympathy from ordinary people, so that even the minimum statutory sentence would still seem too harsh.
(3) Relationship to Other Grounds for Reduction
A discretionary reduction under Article 59 of the Criminal Code is available only if, after all other statutory grounds for reduction have been applied, the minimum sentence still seems too severe. So if the sentence has already been reduced for a confession and the minimum of the adjusted sentencing range has dropped substantially as a result, the court will usually find that no further reduction under Article 59 is needed.
(4) How It Differs from Article 17, Paragraph 3 of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act
Article 59 of the Criminal Code and Article 17, Paragraph 3 of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act serve different legislative purposes and should not be confused. Article 17, Paragraph 3 of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act is a special provision aimed specifically at minor cases of transporting drugs for personal use. The two provisions have different requirements and are judged by different standards.

5. Criminal Code, Article 57: Factors Considered in Sentencing
Article 57 of the Criminal Code provides that, in sentencing, the court shall take the offender’s culpability as the basis and consider all of the circumstances, paying particular attention to: the motive and purpose of the crime; any provocation or pressure the offender was under at the time; the means used to commit the crime; the offender’s living situation, character and conduct, and level of education; the offender’s relationship with the victim; the degree to which the offender violated their duties; the danger or harm caused by the crime; and the offender’s attitude after the crime. In short, when deciding a sentence, the court looks at both the facts of the offense and the defendant’s personal circumstances. A defendant who shows a good attitude after the offense and cooperates with the investigation and trial may therefore receive a lighter sentence.

III. Conclusion

Transporting and selling drugs are both serious crimes that carry very heavy statutory penalties. In practice, buying drugs online from overseas, or having someone else receive the package for you, can still result in liability as a co-principal in transporting drugs, so never assume you can get away with it. That said, the law does provide several grounds for reducing a sentence, including revealing the drug source when this leads to others being caught, confessing during the investigation and at trial, minor cases of transporting drugs for personal use, and discretionary reduction under Article 59 of the Criminal Code. If you are unfortunate enough to face charges, be honest about what you did, confess both during the investigation and at trial, and, where appropriate, reveal the source of the drugs, so that you have the best chance of a reduced sentence. Finally, a reminder: drugs cause enormous harm to body and mind, and staying away from them is always the best choice.
(※ This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute formal legal advice. ※)