Hopefully everything goes as smoothly as possible when picking up your child from your ex-spouse’s house during a child custody exchange, or when you drop them off there. There are all sorts of things that can go wrong, though. In recent years, one of those things is smelling the strong odor of marijuana coming from your ex’s home, or even off your child! What can you do to keep your children away from such questionable circumstances?
Courtroom Intervention for Marijuana Abuse
In California and many other states, recreational marijuana is legal in small amounts. Simply smelling the odor of marijuana on your ex-spouse does not necessarily mean they have broken any laws, which a family law court would definitely want to hear about. However, a family law court can still consider intervention if there is reason to believe that marijuana or alcohol are being abused by your ex-spouse, and that that abuse is interfering with your child’s happiness and wellbeing.
There is a bit of a ground rule for courtroom intervention for marijuana use: The allegation means nothing unless a figure of public authority makes it. That is to say, if the police have never been called to your ex-spouse’s house to investigate drug crimes, then the court could totally ignore recreational drug use by your ex-spouse when they don’t have your child in their custody.
If they are “getting stoned” when your child around, though, is a bit of a different question. Impairment of any sort during a time of assigned parental custody is frowned upon and sometimes outright barred. Yet, again, you would likely need to get direct statements from your ex-spouse that admit to their drug use in front of or while watching over your child. There might even need to be a detailed account as to how the marijuana use caused dangerous impairment, as many in California believe that recreational or medical use causes little to no impairment in small amounts.
Getting to the Truth in Your Child Custody Case
If you are certain your ex-spouse is using marijuana around your child and it is either illegal or causing harm to your child’s wellbeing, then you will need to get into the details of how to get the court’s attention. Richard Ross Associates in Westlake Village can help. For more than three decades, we have been helping people do what is best for their children during and after divorce. It might be possible for us to use our experience and legal talents to convince the court to modify child custody orders until your ex-spouse shakes or curbs their marijuana habit. It might also be possible to arrange for a custody stipulation that says custody can be removed if recreational marijuana use is not kept strictly to days when they are not the custodial parent.
Let’s get into the details of your child custody order. Call 805.410.3407 to arrange an initial consultation with our team.