Pubdate: Wed, 22 Mar 2006
Source: Pueblo Chieftain (CO)
Copyright: 2006 The Star-Journal Publishing Corp.
Contact:  http://www.chieftain.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1613
Author: Raquel Rutledge, Knight Ridder Newspapers
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

MORE PARENTS BUYING HOME DRUG-TEST KITS

MILWAUKEE - Desperate parents dissatisfied with  old-school ways of trying 
to tell whether their kids  are doing drugs - rifling through their 
drawers,  smelling their breath, searching their eyes - are now instead 
demanding proof.

They're dragging their teens to drug-testing labs and  buying home-testing 
kits by the case over the Internet.

"I tell my daughter if you want to go out  tonight you're going to pee in a 
cup first," said  Suzanne Fugarino, whose 17-year-old daughter 
was  expelled from high school last fall after bringing a  crack pipe to 
school.

Schools, too, are getting on board, hanging banners and  sending home 
brochures backing testmyteen.com, a  Web-based company that promotes home 
drug tests for  children.

Although random drug testing in schools - heavily  promoted by the White 
House and done in numerous  districts in Wisconsin - has drawn some fire 
from the  American Civil Liberties Union and the American Academy  of 
Pediatrics, among others, parental testing of teens  has gotten far less 
attention.

And the practice is quietly exploding.

Internet companies and drug-testing labs report huge  upswings in teen 
testing and sales of home  drug-screening kits.

"(Business) has been awesome," said Debra  Auer, co-owner of Express Drug 
Screening in Milwaukee.

Sales of home-testing kits and visits to the lab by  teen-toting parents 
have tripled in the last four  years, Auer said.

Drugteststrips.com says its sales have quadrupled in  the last five years, 
and another local testing lab,  Noble Diagnostics, says sales of home kits 
have jumped  30 percent in the last nine months or so.

"From a parent's perspective, it's the  most empowering thing in the 
world," said Kim  Hildreth, a Dallas mother who tests her own children  and 
sells home-testing kits online at  drugtestyourteen.com.

"You're lying awake at night, staring at  the ceiling, worried to death all 
the time," Hildreth  said. ‘‘You catch them in little fibs. 
You  don't know if they're where they say they are. You worry. There's no 
reason for that."

Hildreth and other proponents call drug testing a  powerful deterrent and 
say it gives teens a socially  acceptable reason to reject drug use.

"We taught them to 'Just Say No,'  but we never told them what to say 
next," said Mason  Duchatschek, owner of testmyteen.com.

Teens who are tested can tell their friends that their  parents test them 
and that they will lose cell phone,  car or other privileges, and their 
peers understand  that, Duchatschek said.

Duchatschek is working with schools across the country  to get them to 
endorse his program of parental testing  instead of adopting controversial 
random testing  programs as many other schools have done.

Home drug tests typically cost $6 to $15 for one test  that can detect 
between five and 10 drugs, such as  marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamines, 
opiates and  benzodiazepines. Parents dip the test into a cup of  urine and 
results appear within minutes.

Matt Muir, a 17-year-old high school senior from  Michigan, objects to his 
mother's recent purchase of  home drug tests. Muir says his occasional 
marijuana use  causes no problems in his life and that his 
mother  shouldn't worry. His grades are fine, he said. He's  already been 
accepted into three good universities and  he'll soon be living on his own. 
He doesn't smoke every  day and never before school, and he's not turning 
to  other 'harder" drugs, he said.

"I think her fears are overdrawn and  exaggerated," he said.

When his mother tried to force him to urinate in a cup  while she stood in 
the bathroom facing the wall, he  decided he would rather admit to his drug 
use than go  through the embarrassment.

"I've given a lot of thought to what she's  supposed to do," Muir said. 
"It's really  tough. I guess look the other way, but not approve of  it. It 
strikes me that parents that are OK with it are  not good people."

Some groups say home drug testing can harm  relationships with children.

The Drug Policy Alliance, a national nonprofit agency  that promotes an 
overhaul of the nation's approach to  drug problems, says parental testing 
tears at the bond  between children and adults.

"It can have consequences of breaking down  communication, of creating 
rebellion, breaking down  relationships of trust," said Jennifer Kern, 
a  research associate with the office of legal affairs for  the Drug Policy 
Alliance.

Drug testing of teens should be done by medical  professionals who can 
better interpret test results and  refer parents to appropriate resources 
if necessary,  Kern said.

Rachael Fugarino, the teen busted for bringing a crack  pipe to school, 
said she was angry when her mom started  screening her for drugs but that 
eventually it was  helpful.

"At first I tried to get other people's  pee to try to pass the test," she 
said.  "Then I realized if I opened up and  communicated it helped. It 
helped to have her know what  I was doing."

Rachael Fugarino said drugs, especially crack cocaine,  nearly destroyed 
her. She said she tried any and every  drug and would do anything to get 
money for drugs. She  stole and forged checks, sold her mom's jewelry 
and  borrowed money from anybody who would give it to her.

She's been clean for about six months and is working  toward her GED.

The home drug tests now serve as a way for Fugarino to  prove she's clean 
and earn back her mom's trust, she  said.

And when her mom and stepfather apologize - as they  often do - for the 
things they've done and still do to  prevent her drug use, "I tell 
them,  'You don't need to apologize. I know you're just  doing it to help 
me,' " Fugarino said.  "And I'm glad that they did."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D