NZ Single Parents Trust

A Family Court judge is alarmed at drug P’s impact on families. Reference Sunday Star Times 24th February 2008.

Couples are increasingly citing use of the drug methamphetamine or “P” as a reason for seeking protection orders, divorce and sole custody of children.

Family Court judges have told the Sunday Star-Times that allegations of P use in such cases were prevalent and rising.

Two judges said that a quarter of current applications for protection orders under the Domestic Violence Act involved the perpetrator of violence using P.

Problem areas included New Plymouth, Wanganui, West Auckland, Hawke’s Bay, Palmerston North and Wellington.

Principal Family Court judge Peter Boshier said the trend was a “huge concern”. “[This] is particularly ominous because it’s such a hard drug to conquer in terms of rehabilitation… Where meth is involved it produces such volatility that [judges] don’t want to put children at risk, whereas some other forms of drugs and alcohol don’t necessarily have the same alarming consequences.”

Out of 66,500 cases dealt with by the 45 Family Court judges last year, 4351 involved protection orders and 21,391 were applications for care of children.

Several family lawyers said they had noticed an increase in the number of P-related family break-ups over the past five years, including affluent families who seemed to “have it all”. In most cases, both parents had tried P socially but one had become addicted.

In one case, an Auckland couple in their early 30s started using P recreationally at a cost of $500-$800 a week. He gave up but she got addicted, which caused arguments and led to their break-up. She took their four-year-old child and lived transiently with friends, and started a relationship with a P dealer, which became violent. The woman’s neighbours and family became concerned at her dishevelled appearance and and reported her to Child, Youth and Family.

In another case, an Auckland woman in her late 20s, who was separated and shared custody of her two-year-old, developed a P habit. Her ex-husband found out and sought sole custody. At the same time, staff at the child’s crèche notified CYF over the woman’s appearance. She failed a drug test and lost custody of her child.

Boshier said judges usually granted protection where P use was alleged or proven in many cases grandparents stepped in to care for children.

“I do not want to suggest there’s anything wrong with grandparents bringing up children, but as a society we have a norm of the parents…”

Many judges direct parents accused of having a P habit to take a hair follicle test, which detects the drug months after it is taken. ESR carries out an average of three hair tests a week for Child Youth and Family, most for custody cases.

Boshier said alcohol was still regarded as the number one drug in protection orders, and cannabis was also often present.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 24th, 2008 at 11:13 am and is filed under Children, Health, Seperation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.