My ex has a documented history of meth abuse. He had many legal issues due to this but his mother paid the $11k in restitution and he is no longer on probation and all cases have closed. Due to the grandmother hiring very good attorneys on to represent her son, during all the dad’s criminal legal issues, the most I was able to achieve was an order for supervised visitation with the grandmother as the supervisor as long as the dad was on probation. Probation was supposed to last until 2015 which would have made our son 18 when probation ended. But, since restitution was paid probation was “unsuccessfully” terminated early and the dad no longer has any checks in place to ensure he’s remaining drug free and I no longer have legal ground to stand on to deny visitation or demand supervision.
Now, the dad has never been physically violent towards our son, although he has several domestic violence convictions against ex girlfriends. I know he loves our son and I trust the drug free dad. But, I know that’s no longer the case.
I saw my son’s dad yesterday for the first time in months. He dropped off our son and had the dad’s girlfriend in the vehicle too. His dad is complaining of evil spirits in his home. The girlfriend stated that she is “hearing things” and that they are “very vulgar”. The dad stated that things are mysteriously moving in his house. He also complained of a spider issue in his home and showed me an area on his arm that had bandaids to cover the “bite” marks.
These bandaids were over main veins on his forearms. His face had large sores. He looks like he’s lost a lot of weight. Both he and the girlfriend are acting paranoid about these “evil spirits” being in their home. All these are symptoms of meth abuse…The “bugs”, the sores, the weight loss, the paranoia & the auditory hallucinations are all symptoms http://www.nida.nih.gov/researchrepo...ph3.html#short. Per the NIDA website and my personal experience knowing him as an addict, the symptoms they are displaying are long term symptoms of meth abuse.
There are documented cases of psychotic behavior in meth addicts and I fear for our son’s safety. The dad doesn’t like to have our son around when he’s in the act of using but that’s not when a meth addict is most dangerous. It’s the tweaking stage which takes a few hours and can last a few days is where which I believe he was when he dropped our son off yesterday that poses the greatest threat.
The dad’s potential for violence is high without drugs. It’s enormous with drugs.
Our custody agreement does state that there are to be no drugs or drug use around the child. But, if the dad is not actively using in front of our son, again, I do not have the ability to prove otherwise.
I will talk to the grandmother and urge her to always supervise the visits. But, previously she would not admit, especially to me, that there’s even a problem. Is there anything that I can do to protect my son if she is unwilling to supervise?
My ideal situation would be to modify visitation and make it contingent on him passing drug tests to have unsupervised visits and when the drug tests are not passed, having supervised visits.
Do I have a leg to stand on legally to request this modification and is there anything I can do in the meantime to ensure our son’s safety temporarily until we get a modification in place?

Have you browsed through the information in LawInfo's Free Legal Resource Center to learn more about your issue yet? See: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html and http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/index.html. You can certainly try to speak to a lawyer to determine what legal options may be available. In the meantime, you may be able to learn more on your own. Search the "Free Legal Resources" tab, or browse the Consumer Resources. Good luck.

Under the new Florida Family Law rewrite you need to have a CONVICTION in a COURT OF LAW against your ex in order to use the Family Court system to protect your child.

You ex either has had to been convicted of a Felony in the last 5 years or has had to have been convicted of child abuse, neglect, or endangerment. Florida Family Courts can no longer assess your ex's "fitness" using studies, psychologist testimony, opinions of DCF agents. There has to be a conviction.

If you let a lawyer talk you into going to court to wrench custody from your ex BEWARE! It won't happen without a CONVICTION of your ex. The Judge is legally not even allowed to look at your ex's "fitness" without a conviction! If you make open charges of "Unfit" parent and allege neglect and you do not have a CONVICTION you could be the one who ends up losing your VISITATION RIGHTS WITH YOUR CHILD!

Under the law your ex is entitled to 50 percent time share with your child (and so are you) and this is constitutionally protected according to the new law!

Lawyers don't want Florida Residents to know this is AUTOMATIC because they think it makes them LOOK GOOD to their clients if they can ALWAYS get 50 percent time share!

I wouldn't turn to the courts about custody issues unless your ex has been convicted! It could be disasterous for your child! OR if you still want to talk to an attorney you should be THOROUGHLY FAMILIAR with the Family Law Rewrite Act 2003 in Florida or you may end up getting screwed. It won't matter to your attorney because he's still going to get paid!

Here's a link to the rewrite

http://childrens-justice.org/papers/...write-2003.htm

Here's a link to an article I wrote on the subect:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/68353803/A...-ABOVE-the-Law

Between October 2005 and May 2011, he has 15 convictions and 2 violations of probations. 8 are felony convictions and 7 misdemeanors, 2 are for battery/domestic violence during which he shattered the nose and collar bone of his then girlfriend.

Have you gone back to court?

Yes. Twice. Once before his prison stint and once during. The judge stated there was “not a substantial change of circumstances” and dismissed the case both times although when the initial agreement was done he had no criminal record and no history of drug use. And I had an attorney both times.

And I might mention I was asking for supervised visitation and the designation as primary parent. I didn’t think those were unreasonable requests for a modification of the custody agreement considering the circumstances.
We did end up settling on supervised visitation by the paternal grandmother when I brought up brining it to court a third time but that was contingent on his probation which has ended.

You may want to speak with your attorney again.