Amazing Aussie minister's tough love

 

Northern Territories Police Minister Peter Chandler and his wife, Robyn.

It was when his son pawned his wife's wedding ring to pay for his P addiction that Northern Territory Police Minister Peter Chandler had enough and threw him out of the house.
Chandler has spoken out about the heartbreaking toll the drug P, or methamphetamine, has taken on his own family as his 21-year-old son, Brandon, struggles with addiction.
"When your own son hocks your wife's wedding ring you know that's gone too far," Chandler told Melbourne's 3AW radio. "To see my son, his girlfriend and their 3-year-old daughter standing on my driveway because I'd literally kicked them out was probably one of the hardest things I'd done as a father." He said the pair needed a wake-up call. "This drug takes a hold of somebody, it takes them away from reality. They would do, say anything - lie, cheat, steal."
He said it was only over the past two months that Brandon had been clean and "can now see clearly for the first time what he's done to this family". Chandler's situation became public when it was revealed on Saturday that Brandon had lent his father's private car to a friend while he babysat her children, only for her to be pulled over by police who discovered meth in the car.

Chandler said. "It's hard to talk about something that's private. I'm just hoping someone out there can do something early enough to prevent their own children being involved with this drug."
Yesterday Independent senator Jacqui Lambie lamented not being able to help her son manage his problem with P despite being a federal politician.
Opposing legislation that would strip welfare from the criminally insane, Lambie said she could not force her 21-year-old son into detox and had "no control" over his addiction. "I'm not talking to my son anymore, I'm talking to a drug," Lambie told Parliament, adding that P addicts would increasingly be locked up for crimes committed under the influence.