Your Adult Child Is Missing and Using Drugs? Here Is What to Do Next

When Your Adult Child Is Missing and Using Drugs, Where Do You Start?

Start with safety. If you think your adult child is in danger or may have overdosed, call 911 right away. The steps below cover what to do next and how Florida’s court process can come into play.

Parents in this position often feel stuck between doing nothing and doing everything. You may have paid for treatment, tried interventions, and set boundaries that kept breaking. Now your child is missing, or was just in the hospital, or was arrested. You are afraid they will not come home alive.

This page explains the first steps when an adult child is missing and using drugs in Florida. It also covers the basics of the Marchman Act, the court process for substance use, and what to expect if you go to court. Knowing your legal options can help you choose a next step that is clear and firm.

What Should I Do If My Adult Son or Daughter Is Missing?

Report the disappearance to the police department where your child was last seen, and ask for the report number. Then write down everything you know. Include the last place you saw or heard from your child, the people and places they usually go, the car they drive, their phone number, any drugs or prescriptions you know they use, and a recent photo.

Keep a dated log of every call, text, hospital visit, and message from your child. Write down the date, the time, and what was said. This record can matter later if court action becomes necessary.

A missing report does not, by itself, get your child into treatment. The legal options in this guide are separate steps. Treat the report as one part of your plan, not the whole plan.

If you learn your child is in a hospital or jail, ask staff what they know. Write down the names of the people you speak with and the time of each call.

How Does Florida’s Marchman Act Work for an Adult Child Using Drugs?

The Marchman Act is a court process in Chapter 397 of the Florida Statutes. You can read more on the Florida Department of Children and Families page.

Under Fla. Stat. § 397.68112, a petition for an adult may be filed by the person’s spouse or legal guardian, any relative, a service provider, or an adult who has direct personal knowledge of the person’s substance abuse impairment and of his or her prior course of assessment and treatment. As a parent, you are a relative, so the statute’s list includes you.

The petition has rules of its own. Under Fla. Stat. § 397.68112, a petition for involuntary treatment services may be filed by a relative or another listed person; the petition’s required contents, including naming your child and you, stating your relationship, and setting out the facts, are set out in Fla. Stat. § 397.68141. Under Fla. Stat. § 397.68141, those facts must give the reason you believe your child is substance abuse impaired, has lost the power of self-control about substance use, and either has inflicted or is likely to inflict physical harm on themselves or others unless the court orders services, or refuses care because impaired judgment keeps them from appreciating the need for care and making a rational decision about it.

The petition must also give a reason you believe harm is likely, or that your child’s impaired judgment keeps them from seeing the need for care. Because the statute and court procedure control each step, the details matter. Keep your questions specific to your child’s facts.

Can I Force an Adult Child Into Treatment in Florida?

A court can order an adult child into involuntary treatment, but only after a judge finds the legal criteria are met. Whether a court orders treatment depends on the facts and the evidence, and no one can promise how a court will rule.

The criteria appear in Fla. Stat. § 397.675. The judge needs a good faith reason to believe your child is substance abuse impaired, or has a substance use disorder with a co-occurring mental health disorder. Your child must also have lost the power of self-control about substance use.

The statute then requires one more showing. Either your child’s judgment is so impaired they cannot appreciate their need for services, or their neglect poses a real and present threat of substantial harm that cannot be avoided through willing, able, and responsible family members, friends, or other services; or there is a substantial likelihood your child has inflicted, threatened, or attempted physical harm on themselves or others, or is likely to inflict it unless admitted. The statute also says that mere refusal of services is not, by itself, evidence of lack of judgment.

Under Fla. Stat. § 397.697, an order can last up to 90 days. In J.C. v. State, the Fifth District wrote: “In doing so, the court failed to follow the applicable statute by essentially functioning as the absent petitioner.”

What Evidence Matters When Your Child Keeps Getting Worse?

The court decides based on evidence, so dated facts matter more than general worry. The judge hears all relevant evidence, including testimony from family members who know your child’s history. The judge also reviews the clinical assessment and may order drug tests, under Fla. Stat. § 397.6957.

Gather what you can. That includes hospital and emergency room records, police contacts, overdose history, names of people who saw recent use, and a timeline of what changed and when. A vague statement like “she is getting worse” gives a judge less to work with than dates and specific events.

A petition may be accompanied by a certificate or report of a qualified professional who examined the respondent within 30 days before the petition was filed, under Fla. Stat. § 397.68141. If your child was never assessed, or refused an assessment, the petition must say so, under Fla. Stat. § 397.68141.

Your fear of exposure may be real. The clerk may not publish personal identifying information on a court docket or in a publicly accessible file.

Protecting Your Home and Your Family While You Act

Enabling means covering costs that fund drug use. Helping means insisting on an assessment and treatment while keeping the lines of contact open.

Enabling often looks like paying bills, handing over cash, or covering for your child with an employer, landlord, or police. Helping often looks like saying clearly that you want an assessment, and stating what you will and will not do if your child refuses.

Most parents move back and forth between the two. A boundary is easier to hold when you have a plan for what comes next. Without a legal path, the same hard choice tends to come back with every new crisis.

Protect the rest of your household too. A spouse and younger children can be affected by a loved one’s crisis. You can set rules for your own home, such as who may stay there and what you will pay for, and still care about your adult child. Keep the focus on your own decisions. You cannot control your child’s choices, but you can control what you do next.

What If the Treatment Your Child Needs Is Outside Florida?

Where your child is physically located can change how the case moves through court. Under Fla. Stat. § 397.681, a petition must be filed with the clerk in the county where the person is located, and the clerk may not charge a filing fee.

The Fifth District Court of Appeal addressed a wrong-county filing in J.P. v. J.N.. The court held that filing in the wrong county did not take away the circuit court’s jurisdiction. In J.P. v. J.N., the filing of the petition in the wrong county did not divest the circuit court in Putnam County of jurisdiction.

Timing matters too. The court must schedule a hearing within 10 court working days unless a continuance is granted, under Fla. Stat. § 397.68151. In an emergency, the court may act on the petition’s contents alone under Fla. Stat. § 397.6818.

Whether an order can send your child to a program outside Florida is a question about the specific facts and orders involved. Bring the locations you know of to any conversation about your case.

Talk Through Your Child’s Situation With Robinson Casey

You have carried this for a long time, and the fear of losing your child is heavy. You do not have to work out the court process alone.

Robinson & Casey focuses its practice on Marchman Act petitions and guardianship matters for families in Miami-Dade, South Florida, and across the state. Richard J. Casey III, Esq. is the responsible lawyer for this page.

Call (561) 849-4700 or request a consultation through our contact page. The first consultation is free, confidential, and comes with no obligation to continue.