I never defended alcohol or cigs.

No. I'm talking about those people who are practically slaves of the drug they are addicted to. So much so that they are unable to care for their children.

My boyfriend's mother was a drug abuser. She did methane phedomine and heroin. She was doing meth while she was pregnant with him, he was lucky he was born with 70% underdeveloped lungs. He was lucky he wasn't dead.
His first memory was sitting in a high chair and looking at the pile of syringes on the table in front of him. The only reason she even had custody of him was because of the legal system back then. They basically believed all single fathers were dead-beats. His dad went over there to get them back many times. He'd find my boyfriend and his brother scrounging through the pantry for food because she had spent all her money on drugs. When my boyfriend was a baby and his mom ran out of money she put coffee creamer in his bottle and FED HIM THAT!

This is not even 10% of the shit they went through because of her drug problem and the f*cked up legal system back in the 80's.
And I know for a FACT that this happens to most kids with a drug abusing parent. This is a damned DISCRACE!

Casually smoking pot or drinking to wind down is not drug abuse. and having a drug on your person is not drug abuse. Tha tis posession. I'm talking about abuse. addiction, misuse. having mass amounts of coke or heroin or whatever in your system. Those are the people incapable of raising a child.
And to be honest I'm not against alchohol and pot when used in moderation.

Warping my words doesn't make you right nore does it make you sound witty and smart. :roll:

exactly. Parenting is already difficult without the complication of drug abuse.

Although it could be argued that one is hardly setting a good example for their children, if they are teaching them to pick and choose which laws to follow. While I agree with your notion that being legal/illegal does not equate to being right/wrong, it is important to note that Oukan may be addressing this from the perspective of a parent. By this I mean they have experience with children to draw upon (which aside from younger siblings which is a different experience, I do not).

As for the topic at large here, now that I have been sucked in I will express my view. It is worth noting that I am a supporter of home detention where it is both applicable to the crime and nature of the accused. So ideally in many of the instances where a mother is pregnant and is deemed safe enough to look after a child, I would of preferred her to be in home detention. However as this is not reflected in reality, I am in strong support of the ammendments which came as a result of Sue Bradford's (NZ Green Party list MP) private members bill found here. It describes that pending certain requirements, a moth should be able to have their baby in prison with them up to the age of two (this was an increase from what was previously the age of six months). It also added that prisons should be required to have appropriate facilities for such a thing to happen.