Presence & use of drugs is NOT grounds for dependency

Drug abuse, treatment, research, and laws.

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Eljay
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Presence & use of drugs is NOT grounds for dependency

Postby Eljay » Fri Jun 29, 2012 10:14 am

This is a great judicial opinion. The reality is that most state laws define drug-based child neglect on when you either use drugs in a child's presence or you are unable to function as an effective parent because of your drug use. Most people don't even fight this (because they don't know the law) and CPS will take the kids and drag parents through hell. This is a great way to fight it:

http://opinions.1dca.org/written/opinio ... 387%20.pdf


Keep in mind, this is Florida, Narcotics Capital of the World, but, they effectively argued that a parent using drugs while NOT in the child's presence and while the child was otherwise supervised, does NOT qualify as abuse NOR neglect.
Advice & opinions provided are no substitute for genuine legal assistance. Laws & rules vary by state/jurisdiction so do your homework and get
an education in CPS laws, rules & practices so that you can FIGHT for your children's rights. I am not a lawyer. Your mileage may vary.

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jenniferivey
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Joined: Fri Dec 31, 2010 11:39 am
Location: California

Re: Presence & use of drugs is NOT grounds for dependency

Postby jenniferivey » Tue Aug 21, 2012 10:08 am

I would like to know the law on drug use in Missouri. I lived in California, but got my kids in the ICPC and after a voluntary drug test the kids were taken and sent back to Missouri. I have only been allowed one therapeutic visit in nine months.

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Eljay
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Re: Presence & use of drugs is NOT grounds for dependency

Postby Eljay » Tue Aug 21, 2012 1:54 pm

That ruling is an appellate court ruling (1st district court of appeal) which means that it has gone above state law and been challenged at the federal court level. Whatever was ruled in that case is now "case law" for the entire country.

As for state specific laws, use this link and search for what you need:
http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/ ... ies/state/

Definitions of abuse/neglect also here: http://www.childwelfare.gov/can/defining/
Advice & opinions provided are no substitute for genuine legal assistance. Laws & rules vary by state/jurisdiction so do your homework and get
an education in CPS laws, rules & practices so that you can FIGHT for your children's rights. I am not a lawyer. Your mileage may vary.

----<>----<>----<>---- BREED WITH CAUTION ----<>----<>----<>----

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family_man
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Location: TX

Re: Presence & use of drugs is NOT grounds for dependency

Postby family_man » Wed Aug 22, 2012 7:09 am

Is it case law for the entire country, or just for the 1rst district? I would think it would have to be a US Supreme Court ruling, for it to apply to the entire country. But I could be wrong.
Disclaimer: I am not an attorney, and this is not legal advice.

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Eljay
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Re: Presence & use of drugs is NOT grounds for dependency

Postby Eljay » Wed Aug 22, 2012 8:04 am

family_man wrote:Is it case law for the entire country, or just for the 1rst district? I would think it would have to be a US Supreme Court ruling, for it to apply to the entire country. But I could be wrong.


Nope... federal level. It's just an intermediate court as the Supreme Court is reserved for the BIG issues... they only take (googling...... ) about 100-135 cases per year. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_case ... _each_year
Advice & opinions provided are no substitute for genuine legal assistance. Laws & rules vary by state/jurisdiction so do your homework and get
an education in CPS laws, rules & practices so that you can FIGHT for your children's rights. I am not a lawyer. Your mileage may vary.

----<>----<>----<>---- BREED WITH CAUTION ----<>----<>----<>----

madangel
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Re: Presence & use of drugs is NOT grounds for dependency

Postby madangel » Sun Aug 18, 2013 10:48 pm

I had a positive ua for meth, I've never had a dirty ua in my life till now. I've given 9 clean since. I don't have a criminal record,or a bad driving record. I live in oregon. I volunteered for random ua (the were all negative) but the caseworker is demanding I take drug classes. I said sure find one that will take a non drug user and I will go. But there are non. Can they demand I lye and say I am a drug abuser so I can go to classes. I think they are going to threaten me with permanent removals of my kids if I don't. What am I gonna go up against in trial and pretrial next week. I live in oregon

The Sheriff
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Re: Presence & use of drugs is NOT grounds for dependency

Postby The Sheriff » Fri Oct 11, 2013 11:34 am

THIS IS FANTASTIC THANK YOU!!! :)

noddy
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Joined: Thu Oct 17, 2013 1:40 am

Re: Presence & use of drugs is NOT grounds for dependency

Postby noddy » Fri Oct 18, 2013 12:13 am

madangel wrote:I had a positive ua for meth, I've never had a dirty ua in my life till now. I've given 9 clean since. I don't have a criminal record,or a bad driving record. I live in oregon. I volunteered for random ua (the were all negative) but the caseworker is demanding I take drug classes. I said sure find one that will take a non drug user and I will go. But there are non. Can they demand I lye and say I am a drug abuser so I can go to classes. I think they are going to threaten me with permanent removals of my kids if I don't. What am I gonna go up against in trial and pretrial next week. I live in oregon


we had a similar issue, and we're also in the Oregon area.

CPS/DHS will try to get you to admit to using, so they can use these records against you in the future. They "snowball" previous open cases, and present them to the judge (who knows nothing about the legitimacy or non-legitimacy for having had the cases open); and will use "a history of open cases" as an under-handed, slight-negatively induced commentary tactic, as a way of destroying- in the judge's mind- your fitness as a parent... even if these cases were opened due to "an anonymous tip" that was never even validated whatsoever. Even if these are not YOUR cases, but those belonging to your extended family members. They'll try to paint a picture of a broken family incapable of parenting.

like us, we're you taking prescription drugs that showed a false-positive for an illegal substance?

grandma10
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Joined: Sun Jun 22, 2014 9:57 am

Re: Presence & use of drugs is NOT grounds for dependency

Postby grandma10 » Tue Aug 05, 2014 1:03 pm

I would like to know the law in Ohio for drugs not being grounds for dependency. Son is dealing with CPS he and my granddaughter live with us, they have an open case and he does have an attorney and granddaughter wasn't taken, the investigator says he is a drug addict and his daughter was abused and neglected, well my son has failed a few drug tests for Suboxone which he has no prescription for he was taken off the program, so now his attorney suggests that he goes to a doctor to get them, so I would like to know the Ohio law on this matter. CPS has nothing else on him and no proof of any abuse nor neglect because there was none. thank you for your help!

heavyaaron
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Joined: Fri Jun 27, 2014 9:12 pm

Re: Presence & use of drugs is NOT grounds for dependency

Postby heavyaaron » Thu Aug 21, 2014 10:01 am

family_man wrote:Is it case law for the entire country, or just for the 1rst district? I would think it would have to be a US Supreme Court ruling, for it to apply to the entire country. But I could be wrong.


I agree with you Family Man; this would be only over the 1st district. Indeed, I think it's even more restricted than that. The opinion, if you read it, depends on Florida's abuse and neglect definitions. The appellate ruling, as I understand it (and IANAL), would apply only to Florida's existing law (or presumably any other state in the first district that used exactly the same definitions in their laws as Florida; an unlikely possibility.) Indeed Florida could reinstate removals of children based on the presence of illegal drugs by simply broadening their abuse and neglect definitions to include that possibility.

shakeserfists
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Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2015 5:47 pm

Re: Presence & use of drugs is NOT grounds for dependency

Postby shakeserfists » Thu Feb 22, 2018 11:30 am

My daughter just had a baby....she was on heroin and went to outreach and got on subutex.at41/2 months pregnant when She found out She was that far and decided to keep it She didn't have much prenatal care because Medicaid kept delaying....it. She also has a 5yrold who my mother has temp custody of..she tested positive for amphetamine at birth so did baby.they retested her and baby next day it was negative.dfacs came around ...I am afraid they are going to remove baby from her custody...she was willing to give me custody so we have that and it's notarized..the baby was too come home today..now they keeping it...for jaundice they say...if I have a notarized paper giving me custody...can I take that to Hospital and get thebaby? is it enough?...can she give me custody and stop dfacs from taking custody of him? Will I have/to go through dfacs to do this if she gives me custodybefore they take him...what about the5yr old. Who is with the great grandmother but my daughter lives there with my mother...should I take custodyof him too...should my daughter move out... Please I'm running out of time...must dfscs serve my daughter to take custody...? Well they do that before the baby is discharged or wait till she gets home...?I know dfacs will be coming for follow up because she is on doctor ordered meds which is a drug to get off heroin.?I wanted to find out these things..b4 it's toolate...sorry so many questions


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