TASMANIAN Senator Jacqui Lambie says her son is angry she has publicly exposed his ice addiction.
BUT she said an overwhelming sense of powerlessness and a desperate desire to help him, drove her to make the revelation in the Senate as she pleaded for action on Australia's ice epidemic.
"I spoke to him last night. He is very, very angry at me, obviously. But, you know, I'm running out of options," she told the Nine Network.
"We are watching their lives vanish in front of us and we cannot do anything. It is just awful."
Senator Lambie hopes her 21-year-old son's battle will mobilise support for new laws to give parents the power to force their children into drug treatment.
Since the revelation, she's had a flood of calls from fellow senators pledging support for her involuntary detox laws.
"I did not warn anyone I would do this. I was not sure I would have the courage to stand up in the Senate to talk about this," Senator Lambie said.
"But the bottom line is I decided to walk the gauntlet. I'm running out of options for my son and I have to get to the other end - I have to get to the other end and hopefully he will come and ask me for help."
Senator Lambie said her son had been open in past media interviews about his history with drugs, and over the years had been involved with various rehab programs, which had helped him.
But things took a sinister turn when he began experimenting with ice, and his erratic behaviour forced her to ask him to move out of the family home two months ago.
Senator Lambie's crossbench colleague Nick Xenophon backed her push for mandatory rehabilitation.
There was legislation in South Australia enabling families of problem gamblers to seek intervention orders, he said.
"We need to have the same approach when it comes to ice."
Senator Xenophon described Senator Lambie's situation as "heart-wrenching" and said the issue was an epidemic.
