No matter what your position, or how powerful or successful you are, there are certain fears that as a parent you can never escape.
Senator Jacqui Lambie proved that yesterday when she revealed in Parliament that her son is addicted to the drug ice.
“I’m a senator of Australia and I have a 21-year-old son who has a problem with ice, and yet even with my title I have no control over my son,” she said. “I can’t involuntarily detox my own son because I’m not talking to my son anymore. I’m now talking to a drug.”
She reminded us of the private hell many individuals may be facing at home, powerless and unable to support the people they so desperately love. No matter who and what you are – a senator, a CEO, a stay-at-home mother – there are certain family battles you can never control.
Lambie said she’s not the only parent out there experiencing this, “There are thousands of us”.
Indeed, another public figure – NT Police Minister Peter Chandler – also revealed this week that his 21-year-old son is battling with ice. He told 3AM radio that one of the hardest things he’s done as a father, was having to kick his son out of the house. “When your son hocks your wife’s wedding ring you know that’s it’s gone too far.”
Lambie last night told the ABC’s 7:30 program her son started dabbling with ice a few years ago, and she recently had to ask him to leave her home because “things were going missing”.
“When you’re getting to the point where you’ve got to lock your bag and that up, then I shouldn’t have to live under those conditions,” she said. “So for the safety of myself and somebody else that is in that house, the best thing to do was to ask him to leave.”
Asked if she can “recognize her son” when he’s on drugs, Lambie said that she may as well be talking to a pharmaceutical drug. “The thing’s just taken over his life.”
She added that despite her connections and being a member of Parliament, she’s unable to help her son because she can’t access involuntary detox.
Lambie has urged the Senate to think “more broadly” amount drug addition and mental health. She said she will oppose legislation currently being debated in the Senate that will remove welfare payments from individuals charged with a serious offence who’re being held in psychiatric confinement.
“It is very easy to take a populist position and vote for legislation that takes a hard line against people who are alleged to have committed terrible crimes and have serious mental illnesses,” she said. “The harder position is to oppose this legislation on the basis that it undermines basic civil rights and the chance for quicker recovery for people who are very sick.
Lambie said the ice problem is particularly bad in her home state of Tasmania, it’s also known to be a major issue in rural and remote parts of Australia. Around 2% of Australians are believed to have used ice in the past 12 months.
Lambie is working on a private member’s bill to give parents of drug-addicted children the ability to force them into rehabilitation. She believes this will give parents more control, but added Australia does not currently have enough rehabilitation resources to deal with the extent of the problem.
She said one of three things will happen to ice users if they can’t get support: “They will end up on a slab, they will end up in these mental institutions, they will end up killing somebody else because of their actions because they don’t have control of the drug.”