PARENTS TO BE FORCED TO QUIT DRUGS

MORE than 80 per cent of children whose deaths could be linked to their
parents' drug abuse were known to NSW government authorities before they
died, a report has found.The NSW Child Death Review Team revealed that 86
children of drug-dependent families had died over the past 31/2 years, 70
of whom had appeared on the Department of Community Service's records.

In response, the state Government said yesterday it was planning to force
parents with a history of drug and alcohol abuse to take drug tests as a
condition of keeping their children.

"Up until this point we have taken the word of parents who said they were
prepared to kick the habit," said Community Services Minister Faye Lo Po'.
"We are no longer prepared to take that punt."

Under the government plan, magistrates would determine which parents should
be subjected to drug tests and the time frame the tests should take.

Child Death Review Team convenor Gillian Calvert said drugs that should be
screened were heroin, cocaine, methadone and alcohol.

The report also revealed a decrease in deaths attributed to Sudden Infant
Deaths Syndrome from 63 to 45 in the year to June 1999. However
SIDS-related fatalities were almost five times more likely among children
whose parents were alcohol or drug dependent.

Ms Lo Po' said many of the children who died and had been recorded by DOCS
as "known to them" were not necessarily at risk.

"If parents had a domestic incident and police had arrived and there were
children in the house, police are obliged to notify DOCS," she said. "It's
not always that they are notifications for abuse and neglect,"

She said expected opposition from civil libertarians was not a deterrent to
drug testing. "I don't think we can any longer put up with parents who have
these selfish, wilful ways of putting their own needs before their children."

Ms Calvert cautioned that between 50 and 80 per cent of drug-taking parents
trying to kick their habits were expected to relapse within the first year.

She said drowning and driveway accidents were still a concern, with 33
children drowning in the 12 months to June, compared with 27 in the
previous year. Seventeen children died in driveway accidents in the three
years from June 1996.

Most drownings occurred in baths or backyard pools, prompting the report to
recommend all private pools be subjected to mandatory annual safety
inspections.