I believe under the Health heading here, there is a group that may offer more some help.

Good luck.

It is a sad situation as this young lady has a beautiful 2 year old daughter herself and I am so freaking out thinking what that precious child may be exposed to. Little ones daddy, they are not together and he is not in a position to take the child, has said he would support wife and I trying to intervene and get at least temp custody.

that will likely result.

Can't really afford to involve a professional but something has got to be done. May have to beg and borrow enough money to get some professional support.

Training and experience would seem very valuable resources to have available.

Beyond that, I know that there are experienced intervention "specialists" that you can hire for guidance through the process if you're unsure of the steps you should take. (I admit I don't know what that kind of service costs or if you/family is in a position to pay for it...)

Best of luck/wishes/prayers!

you send a hair sample to a lab for analysis prior to doing anything.
Not sure of any other way to be certain, do you have any ideas in that regard?

Everything looks the same as then, and she wound up with legal trouble then.

...but taking and testing hair isn't what I meant--just don't embarrass yourself being wrong.

Given the history, some back-research and/or corroborating stories are probably all that you need.

Jeez, I'm going to quit now. Luck and prayers.

I appreciate all input on this.

That's often the case with severely mentally ill people (and I do regard addiction as a mental illness.)

And the only way I can get her to respond to me is via text message

Just a data point - Three years ago I allowed an acquaintance who had a history of meth addiction to move into my house for the summer. She said she was clean, and was trying to get back on her feet. She had been living in her car along with her large dog.

Within three weeks it became abundantly clear to me that she had either never kicked the drug, or had gone back on it. She stayed up all night messing with Facebook and a couple of other social networking sites. She made token efforts to look for work.

By week 5 she had become unbearably nasty to be around. I ended up kicking her back out on the street, with help from a couple of my most trusted friends. There was no opportunity for an intervention - I didn't have enough support or any place to send her. I think she ended up driving to her mom's house in Florida.

Meth addiction is horrible. It really messes people up, and is very hard to quit.

And have your schedule arranged for plenty of time for this person. You'll both need it.

I've only done one intervention, with a victim of domestic violence who was/is my law client. I gave her my cell number and told her to use it at any time (and she has). My colleague and I got her into therapy and counseling. We encouraged her to get vocational training and a job. Her five kids were taken away by Child Protection and she traveled 9-1/2 hours EACH WAY by bus to visit them 2 hours every two weeks. We'd pick her up, sometimes take her for breakfast. I even let her stay at my house for 10 days. The results speak for themselves: she went from a woman who couldn't/wouldn't look at us and respond to a fully articulate individual with two vocational certificates and yesterday, the kids were finally returned to her.

Intervention is most effective with a team mentality.

She and her mother can't be in the same room or on the phone without yelling at each other.
Wife and I have always been trusted confidants for her but she avoids us like the plague now.

You need more than you and your wife. Any friends of hers? Other relatives?

Her family and extended family are very disfunctional so not sure about family.

but you'll be exhausted and your progress will be slower.

Right now we're doing intervention with the five returned kids who have been brainwashed by the foster parents, and thus have rejected their mother. My client has her mother, her father, her stepsister, 2-3 friends, her parish, her coworkers, and neighbors to try to de-program her kids.

It hurts to be a plague carrier, but it's something I have to do to keep the rest of the world from degenerating any further.

No hypo and the master of slack below both say something very important; get more people involved, and when it fails, because the odds are that it will, don't blame yourself.

We actually got our County Sheriff to come over and talk/listen, primarily to the wife and mother of the inflicted. The Sheriff had info on the local mental health clinic that could be free of charge. The clinic ultimately failed miserably on this one, they dropped the ball big time, and come to find out, it wasn't the first or last time. But, with the ball being dropped right in front of the Sheriff and a few other influential citizens, things were straightened out.

Good luck, breath deep

...if the intervention ultimately fails.

At the end of the day, the person who is being "intervented" makes the final decisions about whether to accept help, and whether to stick with it.

I realize there has to be clear expectations and consequences if we decide to move forward and she refuses the help.
Either way her 2 year old has to be removed from the situation she is in. I have already decided I am calling DFS Monday, possibly even the police today to DFS involved. Told the wife I would rather see her go back to prison than wind up dead and I hate even thinking that way.

Good luck!

Since you are not related to this person, there may be some legal risk in doing this. A conversation with an attorney would be a good idea. Interventions sometimes involve things that go against the will of the person who is the focus. There could be some serious liabilities involved.