Splitting Hairs

One of our Solicitor clients practising in Family Law approached us to see if we could help with a difficult case in which, due to continued drug abuse, a mother had lost custody of her child some time previously.

In an effort to regain custody, she had to undergo a rehabilitation programme and then prove that she was clean. Desperately wanting her child back, and knowing that she could not continue as she was, she underwent the rehabilitation and proceeded to keep off the drugs. Her Solicitor now needed to prove she was clean.

We were instructed to facilitate the testing of the subject and this was done by taking a 3cm sample of hair. Each centimetre of hair retains chemicals found in drugs over a 1 month period, so we had a 3 month history of any drug taking. The sample was submitted for comprehensive testing for a number of drugs and came back negative for all tests. The mother had done what she said she would and was reunited with her child.