Here is the situation.
I have a niece (brother's daughter) who will be 6 in April, she is a very bright little girl. Neither of her parents have really been in her life unless it did something to benefit them. I was 15 years old when she was born and for the first year and a half of her life took care of her until her great-grandmother came into the picture, now she takes care of her, but it isn't easy. Both of her parents have always been in deep with drugs and neither of them are stable. The mother can't keep a job and bounces around from house to house doing drugs and the father can't seem to pay any of his bills and also does drugs and drinks way too much, he also have very bad anger problems. He has even gone as far as smoking pot while my niece was in the house. Her mother also tried committing suicide a few time and once my niece was in the house. Her mother is also never home and if asked my niece will tell you she hasn't seen either parent in a long time. I talked to both my mother and my sister and they both agree that it would probably be best to try and get custody of her. I live with my boyfriend and he says that he would love to bring her to live with us. We've been talking about getting married and if the courts want that it won't be a problem. We both work for the New Jersey State Police, but not cops, so we have great jobs and great benefit... I know that I am rambling but here are my questions.

What should I do?
Who should I turn to?
And
Do you think I have a chance of getting custody?

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

To start with, you'll probably have to call dhr or what ever your state's equivalent is to this... be warned. This will 99% most likely get the parents in trouble because most of your argument is that they are on drugs. You can go to the courthouse and file a petition for custody but again you will have to state why. And that will bring the focus back onto them for drugs. While they may be simply ordered to go to rehab, they could also be sent to jail if they are watched more closely and caught. You have to decide which is more important to you. I'd say that a little girl is more important any day of the week. She shouldn't be punished for her parents crimes. Try talking to the parents first. If you can convince them that it would be in their best interest to sign away their parental rights to you, you can receive custody with no legal battles and no problems for them. However, if you are going to take it into court, your best fight is that you can offer her a more stable home. Are the parents around the same age as you? That takes away the factor of age. They are married but you are not. I'd be married before I tried that angle. You both have steady, decent jobs. The mother doesn't work (I'm assuming) and the father can't pay the bills. I'm also assuming that you can pass an on-the-spot drug test where as they would be unable to. The drugs in front of the child will definitely get them into some serious trouble as the is considered serious neglect or abuse, I believe. Frankly the only thing working against you is being unmarried and your age (which I've already said isn't a problem if they are close to you in age). With what they are doing, they can easily lose her. You just have to be the one to get her when they do. It shouldn't be hard but it will be a struggle of the conscience. If they don't go along with it... your going to have to make a decision with your conscience. Can you ignore a little girl's well being because of your family? Or can you deal with getting your family into trouble?

Another idea, which has a lot of ethical issues involved, would be to offer them each a certain amount of money if they give you total custody of the child. It might cause a big riff in the family, or they might jump at it eagerly. You could present it to them that you want to provide for her etc and want the custody for reasons such as her school and possible medical stuff in the future... that you have her on your insurance as well. If they feel that they are doing the right thing for the child, and not being criticized it might go a lot easier. It would be up to them if they choose to use the money for drugs, or to get a new start in life. I don't need to say what I think they will choose.

Another route that I have heard of in a similar case was that an aunt had the parents agree to pay for babysitting and child care for the neices. When the amount got pretty high, the aunt took the parents to court and offered to forgive the debt if the children were given to them permanently for adoption.

As a parent, I would never agree to anything like this, but unfortuneately not all parents have their children foremost in their lives. I also don't know the legalities of my suggestions, so consulting an attorney would be in your best interests.

While the legalities of the situations above are questionable, they are some pretty sneaky ways of getting what you want without getting anyone in trouble. If you have a significant amount of money to offer, I'd go with the first suggestion. If they are really hurting for it, they should jump at it. Be prepared to be turned down though. Even bad parents won't always give up their children so easily. Also... this would be considered selling children so be very careful how you tread. And if you do plan to do it this way, don't offer exactly what you plan to give right away. If these people are truly messed up on drugs and go for this, they will try to get greedy thinking of all the stuff they can get with it and ask for more than you have, pulling the little girl just out of your reach.