Mum learns rental was home to drug lab

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Mum learns rental was home to drug lab

 

Jessica Elder | 12:01am May 7, 2012

 

AN UPPER Coomera mother is battling to break a rental lease after discovering the house was once home to a drug den.

Alison Palmer's nightmare began in December, a month after the family moved into a rented Upper Coomera home.

 

Her seven-year-old son Isaach began breaking out in rashes, complaining of persistent headaches, leg aches and an eye problem which resulted in broken blood vessels and bulging.

 

Doctors told the family it appeared Isaach had been exposed to chemicals and he was having negative reactions.

 

Ms Palmer spent months trying to work out where the chemical exposure was coming from and eventually turned to neighbours for answers.

 

The mother-of-two was shocked to discover the house, in a quiet Upper Coomera estate, was once home to a drug den where marijuana was grown and cocaine was cooked.

"I had noticed a strange smell in the house when we moved in, especially in one cupboard, but I never thought it could have been from a drug lab," she said.

 

"I knew it was something in the house affecting Isaach, because the illnesses started when we moved in, but I couldn't work it out.

 

"I started talking to neighbours and they told me about a big police bust here -- I was shocked.

 

"They said police raided the house one night and arrested two men. It was apparently quite a big deal."

 

Ms Palmer said she was planning to move her family out of the home.

"As a mother you don't want to put your child in any harm, so we have to move," she said.

 

"The lease is signed until November, but we can't stay.

 

"I am hoping a letter from the police will allow us to break our lease but until then we will have to pay two rents."

 

Police have confirmed there was a drug incident at the house involving marijuana and cocaine.

Leasing agents for the house, LJ Hooker at Coomera, declined to comment.

The safe clean-up and removal of drug labs is so complex a Victorian training company has begun holding meth-lab clean-up courses for cleaning companies.

 

KCJ Cleaning Enterprises owner Colin Church said at the last course 50 per cent of his business was cleaning former drug lab homes.

 

"It takes up to six separate cleans to de-contaminate a lab site and up to three months until the space is habitable again," he said.

 

Gold Coast Medical Association president Doctor Peter McLaren said it was possible for chemical residue to affect a person's health.

 

"It would depend on how an individual reacts to particular chemicals, but one could certainly become ill," he said.

 

Ms Palmer said she hoped her story would make others aware.

 

"I had no idea what the tell-tale signs of a drug lab were. I wish I had known and maybe we would never have moved in," she said.

 

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2012/05/07/413385_gold-coast-news.html

[brick]

more ammo for decriminalisation. wont be the cannabis nutes that caused the problem.

[crimsons]

Wow, she needs to crack a book.

[Samurai]

i havnt got a rash...then again, i dont cook coke or meth either....