Positive drug test result on child custody.

[Cappuccinodays5]

Has anyone had experience of what recommendations cafcass could recommend if a parent takes drugs? I left my ex last year due to abuse although none of it was physical. I could just see mine and my daughters lives becoming more and more difficult if I stayed in the relationship. He is now taking me to court for 50/50 custody of our daughter but he hasn’t seen her since the middle of last year. My solicitor suggested we request he was tested for drugs because she said in her experience some of his behaviour didn’t add up and there was evidence to suggest this. He maintained throughout the relationship he had never touched drugs so I felt bad doing this but trusted my solicitor. He said to the court he had never touched drugs in his life and I was lying to prevent contact with him and our daughter. Court ordered HST anyway but he shaved himself so they couldn’t collect any hair. Fortunately they were able to take a nail sample, this came back positive for cocaine. I feel blinded sided and naive for not seeing this in the relationship but I’m now worried how this will effect our daughter. Does anyone know what cafcass could say about this? He is still denying doing drugs 😒

Lieing to the court and then deliberately taking actions to frustrate a court order of any kind really looks bad to the court.

What cafcas will say I can't guess but if the test shows regular use espcially if he keeps denighing the drug then I find it hard to believe that they would recommend 50/50.
The thing is it's the judge who makes the final decision so really it depends on whether you have a good 1 or not. Your judge saw through your ex's bs and ordered the test many wouldn't.
Remember this in the eyes of the court your ex is a proven lier and drug user. He has also proven that not only is he willing to ignore a court order but to actively try to frustrate it. This is a massive waving red flag to a judge and a surefire way to really piss them off. You on the other hand have been completely vindicated and it adds credence to everything else you say whilst diminishing all future claims from him against you.
Good luck

Thank you. I just hate the future being so unknown and being told we don’t know what the court will decide. I’m also worrying about how deep his problem is and the effect it will have on our daughter if he gets contact when he can’t even admit there is a drug problem.
He has a history of ignoring the law and court orders in other proceedings which is I think why the judge was more sceptical to his protestations.
Fingers crossed things work out.

I assume the child would be in danger if the parent was taking Coke? So then the court won’t put that child in their care

No guarantees but the likelihood is that he won't get 50/50 in these circumstances. It's likely to be supervised visitation. The drugs are an issue in itself but the lying to the court has really screwed his chances.

@Cappuccinodays5 what happened in the end? Did he get joint custody?

We had a big delay and cafcass simply said they were unable to make
recommendations as they couldn’t complete the drug pathway assessment until there was an admission. He withdrew his application after a big speech about how awful the court system is and the all test were all false positives and he doesn’t know why. How unfair it was that he would never “win” etc. 🙄He will just contact her when she turns 18 instead.
I don’t know what the outcome would have been from the court had this not happened.
This doesn’t really help anyone reading this going through something similar except that people who back themselves into corners will give up to save their illusion of themselves.

I'm so glad for you and your dc that he dropped it though. At least you can now, hopefully, move on without him . 💐

My friends ex did this. He kept shaving to stop them getting a sample that way . It was ridiculous and just made him look more guilty. He even bleached his hair as he had been told that works too.
In the end tested positive . Was given a certain period of time to do parenting course and stay clean.
He didn't do either and now is not able to see his children.
But still tells anyone who will listen how he is the innocent party

I’ve just been through a case exactly like this. He will be told that the expectation is that he doesn’t do drugs when the child is in his care. 50 50 was agreed in the case I attended.

He won’t be ordered to do supervised only unless he’s blatantly off his tits all the time and including when he goes for the drugs test, and if it’s flagged as a concern for police.

Bollocks, isn’t it?

If your ex is being ordered to do a test, the court will more often than not specify what kind of test they want-whether hair, blood, urine, etc.-and synthetic urine has been something that's been used by people wanting to pass certain urine tests. There are articles discussing how common this has become and specific synthetic urine products used by people to avoid a positive result. A page like https://medifastcenters.com/best-synthetic-urine-for-lab-test/ breaks down those other products, so it is good to know how certain lengths can be gone through in trying to cheat on tests. Perhaps this will gain you more clout or knowledge as you push for a more reliable testing method, such as hair follicle tests, which are harder to fake.

It's not about drugs.

No one has contact/ contact withdrawn for drug use.

It's what they do when they are on drugs eg abuse/neglect. You have to prove those things.

No, you do not have to prove those things. If there is evidence that one parent is abusing drugs, the courts will be concerned that they are unable to provide a suitable, safe environment for the child, which goes to three of the items on the welfare checklist. Whilst it is unlikely contact would be completely withdrawn, proven drug use may lead to the court restricting direct unsupervised contact.