In re M.P. CA2/2

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

I. Facts

Father and Irene P. (mother) met in August 2016 and got married in July 2017. They used methamphetamine together regularly; as mother once put it, we “met high and got married high.”

2 M.P. was born in May 2019. At the time of M.P.’s birth, both mother and M.P. tested positive for amphetamines and methamphetamines.

II. Procedural Background

In June 2019, the Department filed a petition asking the juvenile court to exert dependency jurisdiction over M.P. (1) because M.P. tested positive for drugs at the time of his birth, and because of (2) mother’s history of drug abuse, including during her pregnancy with M.P. and (3) father’s history of drug abuse. Further alleging that the parents’ conduct placed M.P. at “substantial risk” of “serious physical harm,” the Department asserted that jurisdiction was appropriate under Welfare and Institutions Code section 300, subdivision (b).1 In August 2019, the court sustained the allegations in the petition and exerted dependency jurisdiction over M.P. The court left M.P. in both parents’ custody, and ordered family maintenance services—namely, it ordered the parents to complete substance…