The dreaded past catching up.......what could happen?

[maggiem]

Ironic really.  Daughter been stable for ages now, working, living with boyfriend(non user), keeping the flat clean & tidy to the extent of being (in her own words) addicted to housework!! She goes to all her key-worker appointments even though they mess her around and is always polite when they make mistakes. Keyworker on a Friday not passing correct info over to yet again a new keyworker which leads to no methadone being issued over the weekend.  Had to wait till Wednesday for a Doctor to re-issue a script after sorting out the mess.  Thanks Beryl for the chat by the way.
Back in 2007 in the bad old days she did illegal things and apparently there was a outstanding warrant for shoplifting fine that has finally come back to bite her on the backside!!!
Anyhow she attended court yesterday and it was adjourned until next month, they mentioned jail for several months because of her record, this has scared her and worried us. 
I dont want her to be knocked back by this.
Can she get support from anyone when in court next?
What will happen to her treatment if she is sent to prison?
Would they take into consideration how well she is doing and that she has turned her life around at last?
So many questions!  Advice please.

Thanks

[mac15]

MaggieM will get back to you in an hr or so,goin to my mums for dinner,thats recovery,i wouldnt worry to much,will write soon. Stevie

[wastedyouth]

Hi maggiem, sounds like your daughter is doing really well for herself now, which is great coming from an addicts perspective to hear that it is accualy possible, only men that want to have anything to do with me are addicts even now , that can have alot to do with having to go to the chemist nearly everyday.  I have been in the same position as your daughter i had a warrent out for me and the time had run out to pay the fine.  In my case i ended up getting probation for a year, but thats me and obviouslt me and your daughter will have done different things in the past.  I personnaly would be very supprised if she got a custodial sentance after all the hard work she has done and with how stable she is.  Her Key worker/drug worker can right a letter to the PF tellig him/her how well she is doing now and that really sending her to prision would make her vunerable to relapse.  They will deffinetly take her situation into account when sentencing, i can say that without a dout.

As for her treatment in scotland i know that they take a urine sample and if it comes back clean you will get you meds as prescripted, but thats hear in a womans prision, but im sure if she goes in with only methadone in her system she will get her meds without any problems, she might need to wait until the next morning though if by the time she got there it was to late, but just make sure she gets to the chemist that morning.  Having a letter from your doctor stating dose, medications etc could speed things up.


I would say get her worker involved with the situation before hand.  By the sound of it , it would serve no purpose sending your daughter to jail if anything only hinder her recovery.  I really hope that it doesn't come to a custodial sentence but as i said i would be surprised taking into account her situation now
I wish her all the luck when i comes to coart, let us know how she goes, i will be thinking of her because things like that can happen to anyone

[mac15]

Dear Maggie,i honestly cant add anything to what WY has said above,i would have said the exact same thing,jails are full,your daughters doin great but as WY says get the workers invoves ASAP,before it gets to court and there may be a slight chance she can plead to the charge without attending court,no reasonable judge is goin to send a girl to jail,where its easier to get drugs in there than out here at times.

Try not to worry as WY said keep us informed but get they social workers to provide someone with good news for once instead of all the negative stuff we here about them,make them work for the positive for taxpayers money instead of them failing to act in time,you may have to pester them but dont let that put you off,phone 2 or 3 times daily if required,talk with their supervisors if required,they are supposed to work for us and help people in difficult situations,which this is one.

Best of luck

Steven

[Ursula]

What they all said.  Also, ring Release - they're the experts on legal issues for drug users and will certainly be able to give pointers.  Their number is 0845 4500 215.

[OP8S]

Hi there maggiem, I don't know where you live but up in Scotland ( in my area anyway ) it's quite rare for people to be sent down for such trivial offences, what has been happening recently is that the Sheriff gives you a Compulsory Drug Testing Order for a period of time which means that your daughter would have to provide samples that were clear of any other drugs apart from those prescribed to her. Up to twice a week since you could get probably get away with having a toot or whatever & provide a clean sample if it was just done weekly. However if you do give them a dirty test then he/she (the Sheriff, or Magistrate if in England ) has it within there power to give you a custodial sentence. It's kind of like a deffered sentence as long as you keep on the straight & narrow. It's a bit of a pain in the arse having to continually provide them with clean tests twice a week but miles better than being sent to jail where ( if you live in Scotland ) you are more likely to start using again seeing as the prison system is full of heroin. My drugs worker used to work with the prison system to make sure that people with addictions recieved their meds if they did get sent down, I am seeing him on friday so will pick his brains on the subject if that is any use to you. Apart from that I don't really know anything else to say that WY hasn't already.
Wish you & your daughter the best of luck. I will post you again on the subject after I have friday if that is not to late.

[maggiem]

Thankyou for your replies.
Sound advice as always, I will pass info to daughter.  She said that because she had shoplifted more than once in the same store it is then classified as burglary so then a tougher penalty. Also because she went through a 'confused' stage she cant remember if there is anything outstanding! Anyhow, I will keep you informed.
Bye the way we live in the south of England.
Many thanks again.
Maggie

[bp]

Dear Maggie

Many years ago, in my shoplifting heyday, I received a letter from M&S banning me from every one of their stores in the UK, if I was found in M&S I would be charged with trespassing, and if caught shoplifting I would be done for burglary, so it is true. However, I would be very surprised if the court gave your daughter a custodial for such an old offence, hopefully even the magistrate would be able to see what a pointless exercise that would be; is it being dealt with in the magistrates court? Given how well she has been doing, she should be able to get a lot of good reports and these will stand her in good stead. I was just about to say "Try not to worry",now that would be a pointless exercise on my part; parents worry.

Keep us updated and take care of yourself. 

Beryl x

[OP8S]

Hi maggie, talked to my drugs worker yesterday. Didn't have much time to pick his brains about you situation because something has cropped up concerning my daughter. Long story, so I won't go into it. But he used to work alongside Liverpool Magistrates, his job being to make sure people that had drug addictions recieved proper & adequate care if they got a custodial sentence. His advice was to make sure that your daughter had a letter from her local prescribing service to say what dose of meth she was on, how well she was doing on it, that she had turned her life around etc. As much positive info as possible on it which your daughter's legal representation could show the courts. As she is doing so well & it is an old charge he didn't think that she would receive a custodial sentence, but of course couldn't really say for sure as he does not know the full details about it. He also said that if you lived in a reasonably large town/city that he would expect that there would be somebody doing the job that he used to do himself & that the person doing it could be contacted beforehand by contacting your local drug services. Also to make sure that you either had a copy of the letter or the original for your daughter to take with her should she ( hopefully not ) get sent down. Another thing is if possible is for your daughter to take her meds as near to her court appointment as possible, just so she can hold out longer until the prison DR assesses her & she gets the meds that she needs, he said depending on how busy the DR is it can take some time though she should definetley be seen by him within the first 24 hours. One thing I wondered about is that once a script is written ( in Scotland anyway ) whatever is on the script is legally yours from the date of signing, so if she got a new script the day before she went to court then the prison service would be breaking the law by not suppling it to her, that's just my opinion though. I could easily be wrong.
He agreed with me though & didn't think that your daughter would receive a sentence for a charge that is so old, so hopefully it will not come to that. All the same it is better to be prepared.
I wish you & your daughter all the best, as far as I'm concerned we should keep our prisons for persistent violent offenders, peadophilles, rapists etc. I see no positive outcomes from sending drug users to prison & thats talking from experience. Keep us up to date if you think anybody here can be of any help or just to let us know the outcome ( if you want to )
GOOD LUCK.

[maggiem]

Hi all.
Just a quick post to let you know the outcome of her day at court.
Well its not too bad! Probation, community work and DDR(i think thats it).  She is relieved and so are we.
Thanks for all your excellent advice as always.
Maggie

[wastedyouth]

Hi really glad to hear about your outcome im glad all your daughters hard work hasn't been in vein, i think the outcome was the best that she could really have hoped for.  Im glad all her hard work had been taken into account.  This ofcourse will be a great relief off your sholders and you can in turn continue to build up your relationship with your daughter, all i can say is she is a very lucky girl to have such a great support network.  As we all know that a higher amount of addicts stay clean when they have this kind of network around them

I wish you both all the luck in the future
WASTEDYOUTH

[Jules]

Thank goodness for that Maggie.  It would've been a travesty for her to receive anything harsher given how far she's come.  My very best wishes to you all.  I hope she realises how lucky she is to have such wonderful parents.
Jules

[OP8S]

 At least you can try to put it all behind you now & your daughter can carry on with her life without the worry of a custodial. All the best for the future.

[mac15]

Great news Maggie M,i had a feeling that she wouldnt get a sentebce but didnt want to say and build your hopes up incase i was wrong. Tell your Daughter i am delighted with the result,after all everyone deserves a second chance and she seems to have grabbed it with both hands and her recovery will go from strenghth to strength if she keeps doin the right things!!!

On a personnal note i am now totally drug frree after being on Methadone for a few years and gave my first totally negative urine test last Monday,my family and i all felt as if we had won the Lottery,what a feeling and achievement,it just goes to show that nobody needs to be on Methadone for the rest of their lifes if you have a great family support network around as well as other options,i hope and pray that anyone reading this can say "I can do that as well !!!".

All the best Maggie and to everyone else on the Forum X

Best Wishes Stevie xxx

[maggiem]

Great news from you too Stevie, so happy for you and your family. 
I wait patiently,and so does my daughter for the day when she stops taking Methadone. She is stable on 34ml and isn't ready to reduce yet, she will in her own time.  How long was you on it and how did you reduce, was it hard?
She has started probation, paid her £35 fine and will be starting community service tomorrow.  I jokingly enquired to whether she would be wearing something with community service written on it and she laughed and said yes!! At least she laughed.  Litter picking I think.
We feel so much more relaxed about things now, can definately see the light at the end of the tunnel.   She is making plans for her future, maybe going back to studying Spanish & French at Uni, although she says she finds it hard to concentrate like she did.
We will see.
Again, thankyou for your support.
Maggie