In re M.M. CA5

BACKGROUND

When Mother gave birth to the child at the center of this case, Mother tested positive for numerous illicit drugs. Mother’s history with using those drugs is longstanding and well documented. The Department swiftly detained the newborn child and filed a juvenile dependency petition, alleging Mother failed to protect the newborn, and Mother previously and similarly lost custody of another child due to drug abuse in a different dependency case. (Welf. & Inst. Code,1 § 300, subds. (b)(1) & (j).) No family reunification services were ordered in that case. Specifically, the juvenile dependency petition explained “[M]other’s ongoing substance abuse place[d] the [newborn] at risk.” At the disposition hearing, Mother testified she, in her prior case involving the other child, was addicted to drugs. She sought treatment then, but “relaps[ed]” because she could not continue to “afford” treatment. Relative to the newborn, Mother testified she quit using drugs “on [her] own free will.” She was also enrolled in treatment and regularly attended “N[arcotics] A[nonymous] meetings ….” She acknowledged “the last time [she] used any illegal substance” was after the petition was filed in…