Section 24 of the Criminal Code (Qld) does not provide a defence to drug possession or supply charges where the accused's honest and reasonable but mistaken belief is that the substance was a different dangerous drug from that charged, because the believed state of affairs still implicates the accused in criminal behaviour. The defence under s 24 is only available where the accused's belief, if true, would make the act innocent (i.e., the substance was not a dangerous drug at all). A mistaken belief about drug identity may be relevant to sentence but not to guilt. The question whether the particularisation of a specific drug in the indictment is 'material to the charge' for the purposes of s 129(1)(d) was left open.
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