An 18-year-old man has been sentenced to over seven years in prison for selling five ecstasy pills in order to pay traffic fines.
The drug is also known in Taiwan as the "happy pill" or "shake-head" pill.
Chiou You-yu (
To collect enough money to pay the fines, Chiou tried to sell 10 ecstasy pills, which his friend had given to him for free, at the "A Go Go" nightclub in Taipei on June 15, the court found.
Chiou made NT$2,500 by selling five MDMA pills at NT$500 each to customers at the club, and later spent NT$2,000 of the money before being caught by police, who raided the club later that night.
During police and prosecutors' investigations, Chiou reportedly confessed to the offense of selling the illegal drug. But he reversed his previous statements and denied having sold the pills when his case was tried by the Taipei District Court.
Police said they had found in Chiou's pocket three traffic tickets each fining him NT$7,200, NT$21,047 in cash, and the five remaining ecstasy pills. Chiou said the cash was to pay off the tickets totaling NT$21,600, according to the police.
Based on the findings, the court found that Chiou had sold ecstasy and was attempting to sell more to pay his fines. The case included testimony from a man who had bought an ecstasy pill from Chiou and testimony from other witnesses who were at the pub, the court said.
Chiou's offense of selling drugs is punishable with seven years to life in jail, optionally accompanied by a fine of no more than NT$7 million.
The court handed down what it called a "lenient" sentence, because the defendant was "young" and "naive."
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