Tag: Child Custody Legal Marijuana

Marriage, Pot, and Divorce

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Marriage, pot, and divorce have become issues family courts have been dealing with as marijuana laws change across the country. But this post discusses something else entirely, the marriage of a woman to an actual clay pot.

Pot Divorce

Kumbha Vivah

In the New York Times, a Hindu writer living in Hong Kong writes about her big wedding day . . . to a clay pot.

“From here on, it’s me and Mr. Pot. Mr. Pot and I. He’s curvaceous. I’m just nervous.”

In India, fate or destiny is not just inescapable, but a rational scapegoat for the bad times and a benevolent provider for the good times. In every Indian city, fortune tellers set up shop, there are universities dedicated to astrological understanding, and TV shows of gurus fielding viewers’ burning questions about the stars.

When a boy or girl is facing the misfortune of “manglik dosha” in their horoscope, one of the only spiritual solutions is Kumbh Vivah – the process of marrying a ceramic pot to remove any bad karma. Kumbh Vivah is a real solution for any aspiring young manglik wishing to marry.

According to one New York Times writer’s astrological chart, Mars occupied her house for love and marriage. And that, in Vedic astrology, made her “manglik,” or Mars cursed! Problem was, she fell in love with a non-manglik, and her parents refused to let her marry him. There was one imperfect solution:

kumbh vivah: marry a ceramic pot instead.

Florida, Pot, and Divorce

Marriage, pot, and divorce frequently come up in Florida too, but usually not the ceramic variety. I have written about the use of marijuana and how it can impact your custody case. No data exist to show how often marijuana use comes up in custody disputes, or how often child welfare workers intervene in homes where marijuana is used.

But in dozens of interviews, the consensus is clear: marijuana’s growing acceptance is complicating the task of determining when kids are in danger.

Medical marijuana implementation plans are being introduced and discussed in legislatures around the country. Florida’s Amendment 2 expanded the previously limited Florida medical marijuana law.

Florida has not legalized recreational marijuana. Many states and the District of Columbia currently have laws broadly legalizing marijuana in some form. Seven states and the District of Columbia have adopted the most expansive laws legalizing marijuana for recreational use.

Most recently, California passed a measure in legalizing recreational marijuana use the way Colorado considers marijuana use legal. Marijuana is still listed as a Schedule I controlled substance, like heroin, under federal law.

Whether you are a parent with a medical marijuana prescription, the analysis of whether your custody case can be impacted by smoking pot will depend on the facts and circumstances of your case. There is no hard and fast rule for the use of medical marijuana by parents involved in a custody dispute.

A Match Made in a Kiln

If a person is advised to perform a Kumbha Vivah wedding, they are taught the ceremony is like a real wedding, but there is no need to call friends and guests. This is typically a private and closed marriage ceremony which the bride (or vase) is going to end soon.

They are not very expensive either, which is helpful as wedding costs have skyrocketed. The approximate cost of a Kumbha Vivah is 7000 Indian Rupees, about $93. But the mantras and procedures are similar to a real marriage.

In Bali, the New York Times writer held Mr. Pot in her hands, and when the prayers ended, stood up together, and walked outside the temple to a quiet, deserted space.

And then I smashed my new husband into the ground, shattering him into tiny pieces!

The thinking is that the pot represents a husband who would be the reason why things are destined to go wrong. Divorce, by smashing the clay pot, symbolizes the end of that ill-fated marriage. Ostensibly, the curse is lifted and the manglik can marry the man they want.

Eight months later, she married her real husband under the blue skies of Bali, surrounded by gleaming family and friends. They walked around a fire, exchanged vows and danced all night. Most important, the parents delightfully embraced her husband.

She has been happily married for four years. Make of that what you wish.

The New York Times article is here.

*Photo credit Alicia Nijdam – Flickr: Gaurav and Anu’s wedding, CC BY 2.0

Custody & Addiction

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Custody and addiction do not mix, as the Pitts are finding out. Brad Pitt is opening up for the first time about his pending divorce from Angelina Jolie. The 53-year-old actor says he has quit drinking since then and is seeing a therapist.

The Pitt Divorce

Pitt tells GQ Style magazine that the recent chaos in his personal life was “self-inflicted.” Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt in September, days after it was reported that Pitt was abusive toward their 15-year-old son on a plane. Pitt was eventually cleared by authorities.

Custody & Substance Abuse

Alcohol is legal, and certain type of drugs – although illegal in Florida, but becoming legal in many states – can have a big impact in your custody or divorce trial, because it impacts how the court crafts a parenting plan, including the time-sharing with children.

Generally, for purposes of establishing or modifying any kind of parenting plan – which governs each parent’s relationship with his or her child and the relationship between each parent – courts look to the best interest of the child as the primary consideration.

However, what does the “best interest” test for child custody mean when discussing drug or alcohol abuse?

A determination of the best interests is made by evaluating a number of statutory factors affecting the welfare and interests of the child and the family, including, the parents’ ability to maintain a substance abuse free environment for the child.

An interesting area of law, and one in which I’ve litigated at the trial and appeal levels is how do you prove a parent is addicted to drugs or alcohol? The easy answer is testing, but testing is not always easy.

A compulsory drug testing is authorized only when the party submitting the request has good cause for the examination. Under the rule, if you request your spouse get tested, you have the burden of showing both the “in controversy” and “good cause” prongs have been satisfied before the court can order testing.

Addiction & Divorce

I’ve written about the intersection of addiction and custody before. Ironically, scientists at the University of Buffalo’s Research Institute on Addictions found that couples where only one spouse was a heavy drinker had a much higher divorce rate than other couples.

However, when both spouses were heavy drinkers, the divorce rate was the same as for couples who were not heavy drinkers at all. And that’s the surprising outcome:

50% of couples in which one partner was imbibing significantly more than their spouse ended up divorcing. However, that number dropped to 30% for couples who possessed similar drinking habits, regardless of if they were heavy or light drinkers.

What researchers have concluded is that heavy drinking spouses may be more tolerant of negative experiences related to alcohol due to their own drinking habits.

The Pitts

Make no mistake, heavy drinking can ruin your life. From a divorce perspective, it is interesting that divorce rates are worst for marriages in which one spouse drinks heavy and the other does not. The research may mean that differing behavior is to blame, not alcohol.

Brad Pitt says he and Jolie have agreed to “work together” on shared custody of their six children because it’s “very jarring for the kids, to suddenly have their family ripped apart.”

Pitt says he has to focus less on work and more on listening to his children.

Marijuana and Child Custody

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Comedian Ralphie May and his wife filed for divorce. She is getting temporary sole child custody, and the comedian will take random drug tests twice a month. This raises the issue of substance abuse and child custody.

Marijuana and Child Custody

The couple has two children together, an 8-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son, and co-starred in their own podcast called Perfect 10. Turner wants sole physical custody and joint legal custody of the kids, plus spousal support from May.

The judge in their divorce has provided timesharing in the case. However, the judge only granted Ralphie two weekly visits with his children, and one Skype call. Additionally, a court appointed monitor must be present for the first 3 weeks.

Ralphie, who’s made no secret of his love of marijuana, has agreed to submit to random drug tests twice a month. Ralphie rose to fame after he won the runner-up spot on the first season of Last Comic Standing.

However, in January, he had to be escorted out of his own show by police after being too high on marijuana to continue.

Pot’s Growing Acceptance

I have written about the use of marijuana in custody cases. No data exist to show how often marijuana use comes up in custody disputes, or how often child welfare workers intervene in homes where marijuana is used.

But in dozens of interviews, the consensus is clear: marijuana’s growing acceptance is complicating the task of determining when kids are in danger. Right now, Florida’s legislative session is underway, and marijuana is being debated.

Medical marijuana implementation plans are being introduced and discussed in both chambers of the Florida Legislature. Florida’s Amendment 2, which was favored by 71% of voters in November 2016, may expand the previously limited Florida medical marijuana law.

Florida has not legalized recreational marijuana. Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia currently have laws broadly legalizing marijuana in some form. Seven states and the District of Columbia have adopted the most expansive laws legalizing marijuana for recreational use.

Most recently, California – where May and Turner filed for divorce – passed a measure in legalizing recreational marijuana use the way Colorado considers marijuana use legal.

Marijuana is still listed as a Schedule I controlled substance, like heroin, under federal law.

Whether you are a parent with a medical marijuana prescription, the analysis of whether your custody case can be impacted by smoking pot will depend on the facts and circumstances of your case. There is no hard and fast rule for the use of medical marijuana by parents involved in a custody dispute.

Florida Child Custody & Pot

Compare pot smoking to drinking alcohol. It is legal for adults to consume alcohol, to drink alcohol at home, and to have alcohol present in their home.

However, the State of Florida may lawfully remove children from their parents if a court determines that the children have been exposed to alcohol abuse, or there is a threat of, or injury as a result of the use of alcohol.

In divorce and child custody cases, one of the factors judges in Florida look to is whether or not a parent has the demonstrated capacity and disposition to maintain an environment for the child which is free from substance abuse.

The Florida statute does not distinguish between legal and illegal substances. Our law only considers whether substances are abused or not. So, marijuana, even if legal for recreational or medical uses, can still be a factor in your child custody case.

The TMZ article on Ralphie May’s divorce is here.

 

Can Using Legal Marijuana hurt your Custody Case?

Posted by admin on

On behalf of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Child Custody on Tuesday, June 17, 2014.

Colorado legalized marijuana for recreational use. 20 states legalized pot for medical treatment. If pot is legal, can it still be a factor in your child custody case?

All drugs in the U.S., are classified into 5 distinct schedules depending upon the drug’s acceptable medical use, and the drug’s abuse or dependency potential.

Schedule I drugs have no currently accepted medical use, have a high potential for abuse, and are considered the most dangerous with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence.

Believe it or not, marijuana is classified under the Controlled Substances Act as a Schedule I drug. Along with heroin and LSD, marijuana is considered one of the most dangerous drugs under federal law.

Although illegal under federal law, what if pot was legal in your state? Could it still be a factor in your custody case? These questions are worth asking because over 20 states have legalized the medical use of marijuana, and it may only be a matter of time before Florida does.

While the legal standard for parental responsibility in Florida is ‘the best interest of the child’ test, maintaining an environment for a child free from substance abuse is a factor courts must consider in determining the best interests of a child.

In Colorado, pot smoking parents fear the legal use of marijuana can still be used to take their children away. Anti-marijuana-legalization parents argue that pot in a home threatens kids.

“There are people who are very reckless with what they’re doing, leaving marijuana brownies on the coffee table or doing hash oil extraction that might blow the place up. Too often with law enforcement, they’re just looking at the legality of the behavior and not how it is affecting the children”.

The Colorado Court of Appeals sided with a marijuana-using dad who lost visitation rights though he never used the drug around his daughter. The court reversed a lower court’s decision that the father couldn’t have unsupervised visitation until passing a drug test.

In Florida, we side with federal law, so marijuana use is illegal. However, many other states have legalized it in opposition to federal law. If you are involved in a child custody dispute, legal pot smoking is a very murky area of law to be aware of.

More on the controversy over legal marijuana and child custody can be found in the Washington Post.