Behind the case of a minor dropping out of school early and getting into drugs

The 16-year-old boy slipped into mistakes

Royal T Day(16 years old), residing in Quynh Thach commune, Quynh Luu district, was escorted to the People's Court of Nghe An province. Few people expected that the defendant, who was only 16 years old, would be tried for three crimes at the same time: Buying, selling, storing, and organizing illegal use of narcotics. Also appearing in court were Pham Van Hoang (28 years old) and Ho Trong Luong (25 years old), residing in Quynh Xuan ward, Hoang Mai town, who were tried for buying, selling, and storing illegal narcotics, respectively.

Wearing a prisoner’s uniform, T. clearly showed off the tattoos all over his arms and neck, which he said he “got because he liked them”. Despite a defendant sitting next to him constantly wiping away tears when he saw his relatives, T. appeared quite calm. Even when his parents walked by, the 16-year-old defendant just looked and looked away.

A relative of the defendant who attended the court said that since childhood, T. had lived without the love and care of his parents when their marriage broke down early. When the couple went their separate ways, the young mother decided to send her child to her grandparents to take care of and go to the South to start a career. His father also worked far away, so he was not properly disciplined from a young age. Especially when both his parents remarried, the love and care for T. was more or less affected.

Although the father later took T. to live with him, his father's excessive strictness and lack of love made the young child more stubborn. After 6th grade, T. dropped out. Life in the countryside seemed peaceful, but behind it were many temptations in society. Although relatives paid close attention and taught, T. still ignored it and followed his friends in society. From then on, T. got into drugs without realizing it. At first, it was just curiosity and suggestions from friends. Gradually, this minor became more and more dependent on drugs.

Being young and unemployed, in order to have money to satisfy his addiction, T. developed bad habits, including stealing. Therefore, Hoang Dinh T. was once given administrative education by the People's Committee of Quynh Thach commune in the locality regarding the acts of property theft anddisturbing public ordercarrying primitive weapons

A little over a year later, relatives were shocked to hear that T. had been arrested by the police for the illegal buying, selling, storing and using of drugs. From here, the criminal behavior of this minor was clarified.

According to the case file, on the afternoon of March 3, 2023, when T. was at Pham Van Hoang's house, he received instructions to take drugs to sell to customers. This was the amount of drugs that Hoang had previously bought from two subjects of unknown origin to resell for profit.

Following the instructions of his senior, T. took some drugs and delivered them to the customer, taking 500,000 VND back. After returning to Hoang’s house, the 16-year-old boy took out a homemade drug kit to use.

That same day, Hoang continued to direct Ho Trong Luong to sell drugs to another customer. Before carrying out the task assigned by his senior, T. invited Luong to use drugs with him. This young man burned the drugs on a pipe and then gave it to Luong to smoke orally. After satisfying his addiction, Luong took the drugs to deliver to the customer and was arrested by the police.

Based on Luong's testimony, the police arrested and searched Pham Van Hoang's residence, seizing more than 248 grams of drugs. The investigation agency determined that in this case, Luong must bear criminal responsibility for selling more than 1.6 grams of drugs; T. alone must bear responsibility for buying and selling 0.7 grams of drugs, illegally storing 0.21 grams of drugs and organizing for Luong to use.

Lessons for parents

Responding to questions from the jury, defendant T. said he had been addicted to drugs for some time. Because of his addiction, he often worked as a henchman for Hoang to get drugs to use. On the day of his arrest, he used drugs twice, and invited Luong to join him.

The defendant's parents, who came to court as guardians, accepted some responsibility for not being close to their child to educate and teach him. According to the 34-year-old mother, because the couple had separated and gone to work far away, T. mainly lived with his grandparents in the countryside, so it was difficult to teach him... The defendant's parents both asked the court to consider reducing the sentence so that T. could soon have the opportunity to return to start a new life. The couple also promised that after their child was released from prison, they would care for and educate T. more promptly.

In the presence of a large number of people attending the court, the panel of judges reminded everyone that the number of young people using drugs is increasing every year. The easier it is to get into drugs, the harder it is to quit.

At the age of youth, teenagers are not really mature, easily lured into social evils, especially drugs, so the family is the support to train them. Therefore, parents need to equip themselves with the necessary knowledge about drug prevention, only then can the family truly become a home, a wall that effectively prevents the penetration of drugs.

After considering the role of each defendant in the case, the panel sentenced Hoang Dinh T. to a total of 45 months in prison for 3 crimes; Defendant Pham Van Hoang to 20 years in prison for illegal drug trafficking; and Ho Trong Luong to 7 years and 6 months in prison for illegal drug possession.

At the age of 16, while his friends were still going to school, T. entered a special educational environment, prison. Hopefully, the sentence for the defendant will also be a lesson for other teenagers in keeping themselves away from the deadly trap of drugs.