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Kendra Wetterland didn't mind all that much when her mom decided to start testing her for pot smoking with a home test kit from a local store. “I didn't understand why she would do that if she knew I was using, but it showed she cared,” said the attractive 16-year-old from Gig Harbor. Trouble was, Kendra was smoking pot on a regular basis at the time, but the tests her mother administered twice a month never gave a positive result. She is now in treatment for methamphetamine use. Home drug testing kits became available to parents after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved them six years ago and have proved popular not only at local retailers but through scores of sites on the Internet. They are even being sold to parents by police departments in some cities. But recently, a new study of the kits available online concluded that they can be unreliable. Plus, many don't offer concerned parents enough information to accurately administer a test. And most overly emphasize the unproven claim that regular testing by parents offers a child an excuse to give peers who pressure them to try drugs, researchers at Children's Hospital in Boston reported. “Laboratory testing for drugs of abuse is a technically challenging procedure, even for medical professionals,” wrote the researchers. They also found information in some kits inconsistent and confusing about what drugs they were intended to detect. “In addition, none of the sites described the different stages of drug use or gave parents insight into the different treatment needs for an experimental user versus a teen with a diagnosis of abuse or dependency,” they wrote. Most important, parents who use home drug tests can jeopardize the vital trust relationship with their child, the researchers warned. Only one kit purveyor they surveyed warned parents against forcing children to submit to tests, a practice professionals dismiss as invasive and counterproductive. Some who sell drug test kits over the Internet also sell the means to outsmart them, researchers found. Local parents who have dealt with drug use by their children give mixed reviews to the idea of home drug testing. Without the benefit of the researchers' insights, some believe it could be an aid to parents. “I think the home tests are good. It at least gives you a starting point,” said Robert Gardner, whose 15-year-old son, Chris Kurtz, started treatment after confessing his marijuana dependency. Gardner did not test Chris for drugs, but learned of his problem after Chris started getting into trouble with the law and missing school. Chris said he wouldn't have agreed to testing even if his parents had proposed it. “I wouldn't do it because I think at the point I was using, I wasn't ready to admit something needed to be done,” he said. And his parents probably wouldn't have tried it if they had known, he said, just to avoid a fight. Kathy Edwards of Bainbridge Island, the mother of adult children and stepchildren who have had drug problems, said testing would have been senseless “because I knew they were using.” The signs were there, she said “They wouldn't eat, they wouldn't show up, the way they talked to me.” Dawn, whose daughter was suspended from high school for drugs and found to be using methamphetamine at 17, said confirming it with a home test wouldn't have been much help. “What would I have done with the results?” said Dawn, who asked that her last name not be used to protect her family's privacy. “The after-care is what's important,” she said, and the reason she sought help at Cascade Recovery in Silverdale, where she and the others are members of support groups. Despite the new research, some parents remain high on the tests. One parent who declined to be named called the home tests “fabulous.”“We're talking about anything they can do to support the child in life,” the parent added. The Boston researchers, three doctors who specialize in adolescent drug use, recommend parents rely for guidance from their physicians, treatment professionals and information provided by non-commercial sites like the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information. • • • More help for parents
• Changes in friends. • Negative changes in schoolwork, missing school, declining grades. • Increased secrecy about possessions or activities. • Use of incense, room deodorant or perfume to hide smoke or chemical odors. • Subtle changes in conversations with friends more secretive, coded language. • Change in clothing, new interest in clothes that emphasize drug use. • Increase in borrowing money. • Evidence of drug paraphernalia like pipes, rolling papers. • Evidence of use of inhalant products such as hair spray, nail polish, correction fluid, common household products. Rags and paper bags are sometimes used as accessories. • Bottles of eye drops, which may be used to mask bloodshot eyes or dilated pupils. • New use of mouthwash or breath mints to cover up the smell of alcohol. • Missing prescription narcotic or mood-stabilizing drugs.
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