Everyone likes to break a record, heck, some people spend their whole lives growing out their fingernails or making the world’s largest pancake just to be in the Guinness Book of World Records. Other records should not be broken. A Pennsylvania third grader has put in a bid for America’s youngest drug dealer, allegedly dolling out little packets of heroin to his pals at school. The packets ironically had the words “trust me” stamped on them since nothing is more suspicious than an unidentified, white powder with possible hallucinogenic or poisonous qualities. At what age does a minor become aware of the illegality and the criminal nature of their actions, and at what age does a child deserve to be punished regardless of whether they knew they were committing a crime or not? A teenager handing out heroin at school would be busted with a long list of drug charges including possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, or with the amount of heroin this 3rd grader had on him, charges of drug trafficking. Will this youngster need a criminal defense attorney to keep his record clean or will the courts find that this child was innocently unaware of what he/she was doing and has been caught in the middle of someone else’s scheme?
No charges have been filed against the child yet and a good juvenile defense lawyer will disprove any criminal intent of the child and stop any allegations before they turn into formal criminal drug charges. To begin with, the kid wasn’t selling the heroin. He was just passing it around like candy. He obviously had very little idea of the value of what he held in his little hands, which allegedly was worth about $1,000! A juvenile drug attorney would argue that this child should not be charged or sentenced because he had no knowledge that what he was doing was wrong, he did not pass out the heroin for personal gain, and because he did not harm any of his classmates with his little party favors.
So if the child isn’t responsible for this incident, who is? Perhaps it was some drug dealer’s sadistic idea to enlarge their client base by addicting third graders to heroin? More likely, this child found and took something that wasn’t theirs and he/she is going to be in a lot of trouble at home. It is very probable that it will be the parents of the child who are going to take the fall for this and will need to hire a criminal defense attorney to protect them against charges of child neglect, child abuse, drug possession, and distribution of a controlled substance. The parents at the school where this incident occurred are going to want someone to blame, and the school officials are going to want to push the blame as far away from themselves as possible. So when the cops knock on the door, the parents of this child better be ready with a criminal defense lawyer by their side to make sure that they do not incriminate themselves while they are under investigation. If they do not seek the help of a criminal defense lawyer from the beginning they could be facing serious consequences including being charged with heroin possession and having custody of their child taken away. Let’s hope that this family’s criminal defense attorney can show that it was all just one big mistake and the next time that this child brings something to share at school, it is brownies, and I don’t mean the magical kind.
