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Court of Appeals: Drug use can’t prevent child visits

Nenad Stojkovic/Fickr
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CC BY 2.0 (cropped)

Michigan family courts can no longer use failed drug tests as a core reason to suspend someone’s parental visitation time

This week an appeals court overturned a decision that kept a woman from seeing her child until she had three consecutive clean drug tests.

Attorney Luke Nofsinger worked on the case. He says, in this situation, the time the mother did spend with her child went well.

“So, imagine being that child, having parenting time, having it for some time and then, unbeknownst to you, not seeing Mom for a while because Mom tested positive for marijuana. It certainly had a negative effect on the children.”

While this case dealt with a parent testing positive for marijuana while her kid went through child placement proceedings, the court says its opinion applies to all drugs, legal or not.

Parents can still lose their visitation rights if they behave in a threatening or harmful way.

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