Pubdate: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 Source: Knoxville News-Sentinel (TN) Copyright: 2004 The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. Contact: http://www.knoxnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/226 Author: Julie Mccormick, Scripps Howard News Service Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test) OPINIONS DIFFER ON HOME DRUG TEST KITS 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 store. "I didn't understand why she would do that if she knew I was using, but it showed she cared," said the 16-year-old from Gig Harbor, Wash. Trouble was, Kendra was smoking pot 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 Food and Drug Administration approved them six years ago and have proved popular not only at 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. Some who sell drug test kits over the Internet also sell the means to outsmart them, researchers found. 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. 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek