'I have no control': Jacqui Lambie speaks out about son's ice addiction
Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie has shared her personal experience of living with a family member who is addicted to ice.
During a debate in the senate on proposed welfare cuts, Senator Lambie said there was a "massive problem" with ice in her home state.
"I'm a senator of Australia and I have a 21-year-old son that has a problem with ice," she said.
"And even with my title, I have no control over my son."
She felt parents should be given more power to force detox on their children.
I'm not talking to my son anymore. I'm talking to a drug."
Senator Lambie made the comments during a debate on the Abbott government’s plan to stop welfare payments to people in psychiatric confinement who have been charged with a serious offence such as murder, manslaughter and rape.
The measure was announced in the mid-year budget update at the end of 2014, and was supposed to start from July 1. It is due to save about $30 million over four years.
Speaking against the bill, Senator Lambie said that it was "very easy to take a populist position".
She felt due to the ice epidemic, more people will be committing crimes due to mental crisis and damage.
Senator Lambie told Fairfax she learnt her son was ‘dabbling’ in ice a few years ago and that it had become a ‘chronic issue’.
Until two months ago her son had lived at home with her, but she kicked him out after their TV went missing.
“You sort of want the tough love, but you sort of want to wrap them up in your arms as well."
She said she lived in fear her son would hurt himself or someone else.
"It's on my mind all the time."
Senator Lambie has two sons - Brentyn and Dylan.
It’s not the first time she’s spoken of Dylan’s drug problems.
Last year she told ABC that when Dylan was a child he was her main carer when she had issues with depression and alcohol abuse.
"By the time he was 13 he was, he was taking drugs," she said.
