I Think My Ex Is Drinking or Using Drugs. Is There Anything I Can Do? (Ohio)

Reviewed by Stephanie Green · Managing Partner & Co-Founder · Last updated September 6, 2026

Unfortunately, this is one of the most common calls we get.

A parent reaches out because they are fairly sure their child's other parent is drinking too much or using drugs — sometimes during parenting time, sometimes right before an exchange. They are scared for their child. And almost every one of them says the same thing: "But I can't prove it. It's just my word against theirs."

That feeling of knowing something is wrong and having no way to show a judge is terrifying. So here is the good news up front: you do not have to prove your co-parent is using before you ask the court for help. You have to give the court a credible reason to look, and Ohio courts have real tools for looking.

This post walks through those tools, how the different tests actually work and do not, and how to decide between an emergency filing and a regular one. It follows much of the same logic as our post on co-parent mental health concerns, so if you are dealing with both, read them together.

First: what a court cares about

Ohio courts decide custody and parenting time on the best interest of the child. A parent's substance use matters to a judge for exactly one reason: its effect on the child's safety and wellbeing. The full list of best-interest factors is in our guide to Ohio child custody laws.

That framing tells you what you need to show. Not "he drinks." Not "she smokes weed." But "he drove the children after drinking," "she was too impaired to notice our four-year-old wandered outside," "the children came home describing pills on the counter." Behavior and its effect on the child, with dates.

It also means a few things that surprise people:

• A parent who drinks socially and responsibly during their own time, away from the children, is not doing anything a court will punish. Adults are allowed to drink.
• Marijuana is legal for adults in Ohio. A positive THC test, by itself, is not evidence of illegal conduct. Courts look at whether a parent is impaired while caring for the child, storing edibles where children can reach them, or using in front of them. The analysis is closer to alcohol than to heroin.
• A parent with a valid prescription for a controlled medication is not a drug user because they test positive for it. They will need to document the prescription, but that is it.
• A parent with a history of addiction who is in recovery and sober is not treated the way an actively using parent is, and courts tend to respect recovery.

None of that means your concern is not real. It means you should aim your case at the impairment and the risk, not the substance.

Second: how dangerous is it right now?

As with mental health concerns, everything depends on whether you are looking at immediate danger or a pattern you want the court to address.

If your child is in danger now

If you believe your child is currently with an impaired parent, or has been exposed to or ingested drugs or alcohol, deal with safety first and the courthouse second.

• If your child may have ingested something, get medical care immediately. Call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 or go to the emergency room. Beyond the obvious reason, medical records created in that moment become the strongest evidence you will ever have.
• If your child is with an impaired parent right now and you believe they are unsafe, you can request a police welfare check. Officers can document what they observe, and their report is admissible.
• Then file. If you are the non-custodial parent or a third party such as a grandparent, you may file an ex parte motion for emergency custody — the court can issue a temporary order on your sworn affidavit before the other parent responds, with a full hearing to follow quickly. If you have shared parenting or sole custody, you may file an expedited motion to suspend or restrict parenting time.

The standard is a real risk of imminent harm. "I think he drinks too much" is not an emergency. "He showed up to the exchange visibly intoxicated with the children in the car" is. Filing an emergency motion on suspicion alone can hurt your credibility for the rest of the case, so if you are unsure whether you meet the bar, that is the moment to call an attorney. Our statewide guide to emergency custody in Ohio explains what a court needs to see.

One more note: Ohio treats driving under the influence with a child in the vehicle as child endangering, a separate criminal offense on top of the OVI. If that has happened, the criminal case and the custody case will each affect the other, and you should tell your family law attorney immediately.

If it is a pattern, not an emergency

If there is no immediate danger but you believe the other parent's use is affecting their ability to parent safely, the path is a motion to modify your parenting time or custody order, paired with requests for the tools below.

The standards are the same ones covered in our other guides: changes to parenting time — supervision, conditions, testing requirements, schedule — require a showing that the change is in the child's best interest. Changes to custody itself, where one parent currently has sole custody, require a substantial change in circumstances since the last order plus a best-interest showing. Most substance-related cases start in the parenting time category, with conditions and testing, and move to custody only if the problem is severe or the parent will not comply. See post-decree modifications in Ohio for how the motion works.

If you are in a first-time divorce or custody case, you can ask for all of the tools below as part of that case, including in your request for temporary orders.

The tools Ohio courts can use

You can request any of these, and the court can also order them on its own. Almost all can be built into a temporary order while the case is pending, so you do not have to wait for a final hearing.

Court-ordered drug and alcohol testing

This is usually the first ask, and Ohio courts order it routinely when there is a credible concern. Testing can be:

• One-time, often ordered at the first hearing, sometimes that same day.
• Random, where the parent is called in on short notice a set number of times per month — far more useful than scheduled tests because it cannot be planned around.
• Reasonable-suspicion, where the order lets you request a test within a set number of hours whenever you observe signs of use, at your expense if it is negative and theirs if it is positive.
• Tied to parenting time, such as a test within 24 hours before each exchange.

Two things to know before you ask, and they apply to every tool in this post:

1. The court can order you to do the same thing. Judges very often order both parents to test, either because the other parent counters with their own allegation or simply to be even-handed. If you are not prepared to take every test you are asking your co-parent to take, think carefully. If you are, that willingness tends to help you.
2. You may be ordered to pay. Courts sometimes assign testing costs to the requesting party, at least up front, or order the parent who tests positive to pay. A basic urine screen is relatively inexpensive; hair and nail tests and ongoing monitoring add up. Not every court does either of these things, but budget for the possibility.

Refusing a court-ordered test, or repeatedly missing them, is usually treated by the court as a positive result and can also be contempt of court.

Being specific about what you are testing for

A lot of parents ask for "a drug test" and are shocked when it comes back clean. Often that is because the standard test did not look for the thing they were worried about. When you request testing, you or your attorney should be specific about the panel.

A 5-panel test is the basic screen used for most workplace and federal testing. It looks for marijuana (THC), cocaine, amphetamines and methamphetamine, opiates such as heroin, codeine and morphine, and PCP.

A 10-panel test adds five more classes, mostly prescription medications: barbiturates, benzodiazepines such as Xanax, Valium and Klonopin, methadone, propoxyphene, and methaqualone or an additional stimulant category.

Expanded panels of twelve to sixteen or more add substances the standard panels miss, including oxycodone and oxymorphone (Percocet, OxyContin), tramadol, fentanyl, MDMA, and tricyclic antidepressants.

Two gaps catch people constantly:

• Fentanyl is not on a standard 5- or 10-panel test. If your concern is opioids, ask for an expanded panel that specifically includes fentanyl.
• Alcohol is not on any standard drug panel. If your concern is drinking, you need to request alcohol testing specifically.

Also ask for lab-confirmed results. Instant cup tests screen; a laboratory confirmation is what stands up in court and what rules out false positives. And ask for observed collection with chain of custody, so there is no argument about whose sample it was.

Testing for alcohol, and testing for longer-term use

Because alcohol leaves the body quickly, a standard urine or breath test only tells you about the last several hours. Courts and labs use several different tests depending on the question you are trying to answer. The detection windows below are general ranges — the exact window depends on the laboratory, the cutoff levels used, and the individual, so confirm the specifics with the provider your court uses.

Breath or blood alcohol shows current intoxication. Useful at an exchange, useless the next morning.

EtG/EtS urine testing detects alcohol metabolites for roughly two to three days after drinking. Good for "did this parent drink this weekend" when tied to a parenting time schedule. It can be sensitive enough to pick up incidental exposure from some mouthwashes and hand sanitizers, so labs use cutoff levels and confirmation testing.

PEth blood testing looks at a marker that builds up with heavier drinking and detects moderate-to-heavy use over roughly the prior two to four weeks. It is increasingly common in custody cases because it is hard to beat and distinguishes heavy drinking from a single glass of wine.

Hair testing typically covers about the previous 90 days. For alcohol, hair tests detect markers of heavier or prolonged drinking over that window; a single night of casual drinking will not show up, and that is by design. For drugs, hair testing is the standard way to show a pattern of use rather than a single use. Two limitations: hair tests do not reliably capture the most recent week or so, because the hair has not grown out yet, and they require enough hair to sample.

Fingernail and toenail testing works on the same principle as hair. Fingernails reflect roughly the prior three months or more, and toenails can reach back as far as twelve months. Nail testing is useful when a parent has shaved their head or body hair, which happens more than you would think once testing is ordered.

If you believe the other parent is timing their use around scheduled urine tests, hair or nail testing is the answer, because there is nothing to time.

Not every court orders every one of these tests. Some judges are very familiar with PEth and nail testing; others are not, and will need to be educated or will decline. Whether a particular test is realistic in your county is exactly the kind of question a local attorney can answer in five minutes.

False positives are real, and they cut both ways

Screening tests can misfire. Poppy seeds have triggered opiate screens. Certain cold medicines and prescription drugs have triggered amphetamine screens. Some antidepressants cross-react with other categories. Hand sanitizer and mouthwash can raise EtG levels.

This is why confirmation testing matters, why cutoff levels exist, and why a single unexpected positive is usually the start of a conversation rather than the end of one. It is also why you should assume that anything you ask the court to order for your co-parent will be ordered for you. Know what is in your own medicine cabinet.

Alcohol monitoring during parenting time

When the concern is drinking specifically during parenting time, courts frequently order a remote alcohol monitoring program. The best known is Soberlink, and it is common enough in Ohio family courts to be worth understanding.

Soberlink is a handheld breathalyzer with a built-in camera. The court order sets a testing schedule during the parent's parenting time — for example at 8 a.m., 1 p.m., and 8 p.m. on every day they have the children. At each scheduled time the parent blows into the device, which uses facial recognition to confirm identity and detects tampering. Results are transmitted in real time to whoever the order designates: the other parent, both attorneys, the guardian ad litem, or the court.

Orders typically spell out what happens on a positive or missed test — often that parenting time ends for that period and the children are returned to the other parent, or that supervision begins. Some orders use monitoring as a step-down tool: a parent monitors for a set period of clean tests and, if compliant, monitoring ends or becomes less frequent.

Other options include competing breathalyzer apps and, in more serious cases, a continuous transdermal ankle monitor that measures alcohol through the skin around the clock. Those are more common in criminal cases but occasionally appear in family court. Monitoring carries a monthly cost usually assigned to the parent being monitored, though not always.

A guardian ad litem

A guardian ad litem is a court-appointed investigator, usually an attorney, whose only job is to advocate for the child's best interest. The GAL interviews both parents and the child, talks to teachers, doctors, counselors and family, reviews records, conducts home visits sometimes unannounced, and files a written recommendation that courts give significant weight.

In substance cases GALs are especially valuable, because they can ask the court to order testing on their own and can observe the parent and the home over months, which no single test can do. The GAL can also recommend temporary orders while the investigation is ongoing, and you will have the chance to question the GAL at hearing about their investigation and conclusions. Our post on co-parent mental health covers the GAL process in more detail.

Supervised parenting time and step-up plans

If the court agrees there is a safety concern but cutting off contact is not warranted, it can order supervised parenting time: the parent sees the child only in the presence of an approved supervisor or at a supervised visitation center.

Substance cases lend themselves well to step-up provisions, where the parent earns back unsupervised time by meeting conditions. Common ones include a defined number of consecutive negative random screens, a period of compliant monitoring, completion of a substance abuse assessment and any recommended treatment, and consistent attendance at counseling or a recovery program. Ohio courts have broad authority to set whatever parenting time terms serve the child's best interest, and a well-drafted step-up plan protects the child now while giving the struggling parent a clear path back.

Treatment or assessment requirements

The court can order a parent to complete a substance abuse assessment with a licensed provider and follow its recommendations, whether outpatient counseling, an intensive program, or something more. Compliance can be made a condition of parenting time, and non-compliance is enforceable through contempt.

"Can I test my child?"

This comes up when a parent worries their child has been exposed, not just that the other parent is using.

Direct ingestion can be tested the same way as in adults: urine within hours or days, hair or nails for a longer window. If you believe your child has actually consumed alcohol or drugs, get medical care first; the hospital will test and document.

Secondhand or environmental exposure is newer territory. Some laboratories now offer hair testing designed to detect a child's exposure to drugs in the environment, such as methamphetamine or fentanyl residue in a home, and to distinguish exposure from ingestion. This technology is relatively new, and whether a court in your county has ordered it, will accept it, or has a preferred laboratory is a county-specific question that an attorney who practices there can answer far better than a blog post can. Do not test your child on your own without talking to counsel first: how and where the test is done affects whether the court will consider it at all.

Building your case: what to document

You may not be able to prove use directly. You can build a record that gives the court reason to order the tools that will.

• Keep a dated log. Specific, factual, observable. "Sunday 4/6, 6:05 pm exchange, smelled alcohol, eyes glassy, dropped keys twice, slurred 'see you Wednesday.' Children said they had cereal for dinner both nights." Not a general characterization.
• Save every communication. Texts sent at 2 a.m. that do not make sense. Voicemails. Messages where the other parent admits use, references being hungover, or cancels at the last minute.
• Photograph what you legitimately see. Empties in the car at an exchange, paraphernalia your child brings home in a backpack. Do not trespass, do not go through their home, do not search their phone. Evidence gathered illegally will hurt you more than it helps.
• Note third-party sources. Police reports, OVI charges, school reports that the parent showed up impaired, statements from daycare providers. Independent observers matter far more than your word.
• Write down what your child says, unprompted. Age-appropriate comments belong in your log. Do not interrogate or coach your child. GALs and judges spot it, and it damages your credibility.
• Keep your own record clean. Everything you are about to ask for will likely be asked of you. Do not drink at exchanges. Do not send angry texts. Know what is in your own medicine cabinet.
• Consider a children services report only when warranted. Ohio's county children services agencies investigate reports of abuse and neglect, and a substantiated finding is powerful evidence. But an unfounded report made in the heat of a custody fight can be turned against you. Talk to an attorney before making one unless a child is in immediate danger.

The reality under Ohio law, in one place

You do not need proof to ask for help. You need a credible, documented concern. The court has tools to get the proof.

The court cares about impairment and risk to the child, not the substance by itself. Legal marijuana, valid prescriptions, and social drinking away from the children are not custody issues on their own.

Danger now means emergency motions. Medical care and a welfare check come first if a child is at risk in the moment.

A pattern means modification, plus tools. Court-ordered testing — be specific about the panel, and ask for alcohol separately — random or reasonable-suspicion testing, hair or nail testing to show a pattern, alcohol monitoring during parenting time, a guardian ad litem, supervised time with step-up provisions, and assessment or treatment requirements.

Everything runs both ways. Testing, monitoring, and cost can all be ordered against the requesting parent too.

Not every court orders every test. Whether PEth, nail testing, or child exposure testing is realistic where you live is a local question.

Documentation is your case. Dated, specific, observable, and legally obtained.

Worried your children are not safe? Let's talk about what a court will actually do.

The gap between "I know something is wrong" and "a judge ordered testing" is smaller than most parents think, but the path depends on your county, your current order, and what you can document. In a consultation we will help you figure out whether you are in emergency territory, which tests and tools a court in your county is likely to order, and how to ask for them in a way that does not backfire.

Gavvl Law handles custody, parenting time, modification, and emergency matters in all 88 Ohio counties. You can hire us for the whole matter or for a single limited-scope service at a flat fee. Compare both ways to hire us.

Frequently asked questions

How do I prove the other parent is using drugs or alcohol in a custody case?

You usually do not have to prove it yourself. You give the court a credible, documented concern, and the court can order drug and alcohol testing, appoint a guardian ad litem, or order alcohol monitoring. Your job is a dated log of specific, observable behavior and its effect on the child.

Can I request a drug test for my co-parent in an Ohio custody case?

Yes. Ohio courts routinely order one-time, random, or reasonable-suspicion drug and alcohol testing when a parent raises a credible concern. Expect the court to potentially order you to test as well, and possibly to pay for it.

What is Soberlink and how is it used in custody cases?

Soberlink is a handheld breathalyzer with facial recognition that a parent uses on a court-ordered schedule during their parenting time. Results go in real time to the other parent, attorneys, or the court. Orders typically specify what happens on a positive or missed test, such as parenting time ending for that period.

What is the difference between a 5-panel and a 10-panel drug test?

A 5-panel screens for THC, cocaine, amphetamines and methamphetamine, opiates, and PCP. A 10-panel adds barbiturates, benzodiazepines, methadone, propoxyphene, and methaqualone or another stimulant. Neither includes fentanyl or alcohol; those require an expanded panel or a separate alcohol test.

How far back does a hair test go?

Generally about 90 days for most drugs, and for alcohol it detects markers of heavier or prolonged drinking over that window. It will not pick up a single night of casual drinking, or use within roughly the last week. Exact windows vary by laboratory and cutoff level.

Can a fingernail test show alcohol use?

Yes. Nail testing detects markers of heavier alcohol use over roughly the prior three months or more for fingernails, and up to about twelve months for toenails. It is useful when a parent has removed their hair to avoid testing. Availability and acceptance vary by county.

Can I get emergency custody because my co-parent is drinking or using drugs?

Only if the child faces a real risk of imminent harm, such as being in the care of a visibly impaired parent or being driven by one. Suspicion alone is not enough. Non-custodial parents and third parties file an ex parte motion for emergency custody; parents with shared parenting or sole custody file an expedited motion to suspend parenting time.

Does legal marijuana affect custody in Ohio?

Marijuana is legal for adults in Ohio, so a positive THC test by itself is not evidence of wrongdoing. Courts look at whether a parent is impaired while caring for the child, uses in front of the child, or stores it unsafely — similar to how alcohol is treated.

Can I have my child tested for drug exposure?

Direct ingestion can be tested through urine, hair, or nails, and a hospital will test and document if you seek medical care. Testing for secondhand or environmental exposure is newer, and whether a court in your county will order or accept it is a local question to raise with an attorney before testing.

Will the court make me take a drug test too?

Very possibly. Judges often order both parents to complete whatever testing, monitoring, or evaluation one parent requests. Be prepared to do yourself whatever you are asking of your co-parent.

Related Guides

• When a co-parent's mental health is affecting the children
• Emergency custody in Ohio
• Post-decree modifications in Ohio
• Ohio child custody laws

If you believe a child has ingested drugs or alcohol, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 or 911.

Disclaimer: This guide is general legal information about Ohio family law, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Statutes, filing fees, and local court rules change and vary by county. For advice about your specific situation, speak with a licensed Ohio family law attorney.

Call (844) 694-2885 or email support@gavvl.com.