Most drug testing kits (for urine or saliva samples) such as First Check are available at pharmacies and range in price from about $20 to $40. Results will be available immediately.
Say you suspect your teenage son or daughter is experimenting with illicit drugs. What's a parent to do?
There are various forms of testing, teaching and counseling available that require the teen's cooperation to get results.
But parents now have a new weapon — hair analysis. Confirm BioSciences says its product HairConfirm can determine drug use during the previous 90 days. It can also detect low, medium or high usage of drugs, the company says. All a parent needs is a strand of hair, which can be gleaned from a hairbrush or snipped during sleep without the knowledge of the teen.
But involuntary drug tests have their cons — mostly notably the violation of trust between parent and child.
Dr. James Smith, a recently retired licensed professional counselor in the Huntsville, Ala., area, says parents need to take drastic measures — even involuntary testing — if they suspect their teen is taking drugs.
"They will promise you anything and say they will never do it again," he said. "They will say they hate you and threaten to kill themselves, none of which you should believe. If you believe them, you are signing their death warrant. Drugs can kill them or greatly damage their brain."
Alcohol and prescription drugs are now considered an epidemic in this country, said Deborah Soule, executive director for the Partnership for a Drug-Free Community, a Huntsville nonprofit drug preventative program.
But the biggest problem, she said, is "parents are in a state of denial. They say, 'Not my kid.' "
The American Academy of Pediatrics opposes involuntary drug tests on teens. According to its Web site at
www.aap.org, a chemical analysis of urine, saliva, hair, nails and sweat may not detect all illicit drugs such as alcohol. They warn that false positives can also occur.
Soule, who says alcohol is the No. 1 drug choice of teens, believes a parent should be "up front" about giving a teen a drug test.
But if that fails, she says, it is parents' responsibility to see their children are not experimenting with drugs.
