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Two teenagers outside Philadelphia charged with drug possession

Many teenagers in Philadelphia get themselves into trouble. Sometimes this means that they broke certain rules at home and face punishments from their parents. Other times they break the law and many times face consequences both at home and in the juvenile justice system. These crimes can vary from curfew violations to drug possession to assaults. Sometimes the immediate consequences do not seem that severe, but juvenile convictions can have long-term consequences for teenagers.

A couple teenagers in the suburbs of Philadelphia now find themselves in trouble after allegedly deciding to do some baking in someone else’s home. The two teenagers allegedly broke into a home and began baking drug-laced brownies. Police say they found the two teenagers with drug paraphernalia and two pounds of the drug they allegedly used in the brownies they made. They now face juvenile charges for breaking into the home and for drug possession.

These teenagers will now have to go through the juvenile justice system. There are many similarities between the adult criminal justice system and the juvenile justice system, but the consequences in the juvenile justice system are a little different than in the adult system. The goal of a punishment in the juvenile system is to rehabilitate the juvenile, and thus the punishment is made with the best interests of the child in mind. This is different than the adult system where the punishment is mainly meant to punish the adult for what they did.

However, there are still long-term consequences for juveniles, as they could be required to put a conviction on school and work applications. Those consequences can be much more detrimental than the one given by the judge. But, there are defenses available to juveniles, just like adults, and juveniles are also innocent until proven guilty, just like adult defendants.

Source: Petosky News, “Police: 2 teens made drug brownies during break-in,” Aug. 4, 2014

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