In re Joshua C. CA1/5

I. BACKGROUND

On January 6, 2011, Joshua (then 14 years old) was discovered with marijuana and drug paraphernalia in his backpack on school grounds. The backpack contained a zip lock bag holding 46.2 grams of marijuana, a small metal pipe with burned and unburned residue, a lighter, rolling papers, and a ―Keef (Kief) grinder.‖ Joshua told a school official another student had put the items in his backpack and that he did not use

1 marijuana. Joshua‘s wallet, however, was decorated with pictures of marijuana leaves and Joshua‘s mother (Mother) reported that this was not Joshua‘s first involvement with marijuana. On March 23, 2011, the Del Norte County Probation Department (Probation) filed a juvenile wardship petition pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code section 602, subdivision (a), alleging that Joshua committed misdemeanor possession of more than 28.5 grams of marijuana (Health & Saf. Code, § 11357, subd. (c)).1 On April 13, Joshua admitted the alleged crime. According to the disposition report, Mother told Probation that Joshua suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and ―minor‖ autism, and he had trouble controlling his anger. She had taken…