The intent of this paper is to contribute to scholarship, knowledge and public policy regarding child maltreatment and parenting capacity within the context of parental substance use and abuse. One goal is to give voice to the children who have moved to, or who are approaching, the threshold for needing a type of protection that is neither governed by the best interest of the parent (even by default) nor by fixation by professionals on an ideology of family preservation--in the face of competing logical possibilities. In their best interest, many children and youth with drug addicted parents, who present repeated risks with known harm, are now more likely to require continuous care and a permanency plan. This policy-practice analysis relies on selected literature and on published studies and analyses within some current and emerging contexts. Part of the analysis is informed by an analysis of 50 case files, exploring an available sample of expert assessment processes and classifications associated with parental capacity and child-risk need--where parental capacity has been repeatedly compromised by substance use, abuse and addictions. The analysis applied predetermined broad child-risk-need-harm dimensions, expanded upon within the context of interpretations arising from the case content and findings from the literature, to enable formulation of conclusions regarding how some drug effects, substance use and abuse, and/or drug using lifestyle, interact with parental capacity and child risk-need-harm. (Contains 22 footnotes.)