From: Ronald Raygun 
Subject: Re: O2: respecting your privacy...
Newsgroups: uk.telecom.mobile uk.legal uk.finance
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 22:14:03 GMT

Cynic wrote:

> On Wed, 11 Oct 2006 14:53:38 GMT, Ronald Raygun
>  wrote:
>>
>>Because one of the most fundamental principles governing criminal law
>>is the "mens rea" principle, according to which awareness that what one
>>is doing is wrong is an essential precondition to being found guilty
>>of an offence.
> 
> That's where your misconception lies.  Mens rea means only that you
> are aware of the essential elements of your actions.  There is no need
> to know that those acts are illegal.
> 
> So if, for example, you have an illegal drug in your possession but
> thought that it was a bag of talcum powder, then that would be a
> defence to a charge of possession of illegal drugs.  But if you have a
> bag of what you *know* is a certain drug in your possession, but were
> unaware that it was a prohibited substance, that will *not* be a
> defence in law.

I'm not sure that's a good example, because here the ignorance is not
about the law which prohibits possession of controlled substances,
but about whether the "certain drug" in question is in fact a controlled
substance.

What if I didn't know that talcum was *not* a controlled substance?
What if I suspected that it was?

What if it was paracetamol, but in large quantity.  Shops aren't
supposed to sell me more than two packs of 16 500mg pills at a time.
Is it illegal for me (not being a shop licenced to sell pills) to
possess 2kg of paracetamol?