Senator Jacqui Lambie says she refuses to let her son’s ice addiction ‘ruin his life’

PRESIDENT of the Australian Drug Law Foundation has criticised Jacqui Lambie for going public with her son’s drug addiction.

AN EMOTIONAL Senator Jacqui Lambie told Seven’s Sunrise she spoke out about her 21-year-old son’s ice addiction as it was an issue so many other Australians face.

“None of us had any idea you had been going through this in your personal life,” Sunrise co-host Sam Armytage said.

Ms Lambie, who rose in the Senate on Monday and told of her son’s problem with the drug ice, said: “I’m very honest and open about speaking about the problems with ice and what our children are doing, so I think you’ll find there is quite a few people out there who know about my circumstances but the sad thing is there are so many others and nobody is getting up and really speaking about this.

“I thought, you know what, the ball is rolling and it’s time for me to put my head up and see what I can do.”

Speaking in opposition to proposed legislation that would see the criminally insane rendered ineligible for welfare benefits, Ms Lambie explained to Parliament that she could not force her son into detox and had “no control” over his addiction, despite being a federal politician.

“We [parents] can’t do anything. We’re just powerless, we’re sitting on the sidelines and I believe that it’s the only way to be able to give these kids half a chance,” she told Armytage.

“The only way I can see a way around this is actually the involuntary detox where we have a right to put our children in rehabilitation and give them a second chance at life.”

Jacqui Lambie with sons Brentyn and Dylan Milverton, her nephew Jet Lambie and her father Tom.

However President of the Australian Drug Law Foundation Dr Alex Wodak has warned that going public with the battle was not the best way to handle the situation.

“I’m very sympathetic with her plight, [but] I don’t think it’s a great idea at all to reveal somebody else’s health problem to the nation,” Dr Wodak told Nine’s Mornings.

“Everyone’s got a right to privacy including her son.”

Dr Wodak said instead of being treated like a criminal issue, the government should tackle the ice epidemic as a health crisis.

“The first thing we have to do is admit the complete failure of what we are doing at the moment and what we are doing at the moment is calling this a criminal justice problem, throwing lots of squillions of dollars, at customs, police courts and prisons.”

But Ms Lambie said: “I’m not going to stand back on the sidelines and not do everything I possibly can to give my child a second chance at life.”

Revelations about her son came after Northern Territory Police Minister Peter Chandler told of how the drug ice, or methylamphetamine, has taken a toll on his own family as his 21-year-old son Brandon also struggles with addiction.

“When your own son hocks your wife’s wedding ring you know that’s gone too far,” Mr Chandler told Melbourne’s 3AW radio on Monday.

Peter Chandler speaks out about his son’s battle with the drug ice. Picture: Aaron Burton

“To see my son, his girlfriend and their three-year-old daughter standing on my driveway because I’d literally kicked them out was probably one of the hardest things I’d done as a father.” He said the pair were on a downward spiral and needed a wake-up call.

“This drug takes a hold of somebody, it takes them away from reality. They would do, say anything; lie, cheat, steal,” he said. “It was only over the past two months that Brandon had been clean that his son “can now see clearly for the first time what he’s done to this family”.

Mr Chandler’s situation became public when it was revealed on Saturday that Brandon had lent his father’s private car to a friend while he babysat her children, only for her to be pulled over by police who discovered meth in the car.

“It’s pretty embarrassing for the police minister to have his own personal car involved in something like that,” Mr Chandler said.