http://www.homedrugtestingkit.com/denver_post_051307.html

Drug-test kits a big hit with parents
Addiction experts say home tests have a big drawback: They destroy child-parent trust.
By Jenny Deam
Denver Post Staff Writer

The Boulder mother had been down this road with one child and swore she would never make a return trip. When she became suspicious her younger son was trying drugs, she went to Walgreens, plunked down $38 for a home drug-test kit and told him to pee in a cup.

The high school junior was furious. And busted.

“Don’t you trust me?” he wailed.

His mother would not budge.

Finally, reluctantly, the 16-year-old, whose name is not being used to protect his privacy, confessed: The reason he didn’t want to take the test was that it would be positive.

His mother thanked him for his honesty and gave him 30 days to clean up his act. There would be another test when he least expected. A month later, she sent him back to the bathroom, cup in hand. He passed.

In the year since, she hasn’t tested him again. But that doesn’t mean she won’t. She keeps a test in the house, just in case.

What makes this mother’s private act of parental vigilance so extraordinary is not that she and tens of thousands of other parents have bought into the multimillion-dollar industry of home drug testing.

It’s that parents do so despite warnings from most major drug-abuse and treatment professionals, the nation’s medical establishment, parenting experts and even the White House. All call home-testing teens a bad idea.

“I guess home testing is better than no testing,” said a skeptical Bertha Madras, the White House’s deputy drug czar.

But her Office of National Drug Control Policy does not encourage parents to take matters into their own hands. Instead, the Bush administration backs random school drug testing, arguing schools are better equipped to help with counseling and referrals if a problem is found.

“By the time a parent tests, it’s already far down the road,” Madras said. “If they get a positive result, then what? Parents may or may not have the skill to proceed.”

Test accuracy a concern

In March, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement opposing both home drug testing and involuntary drug testing in schools. The medical group prefers worried parents have their children tested by qualified doctors or treatment specialists because of the possibility of error or tampering.

“It’s deceptively simple, but the truth is, it’s actually a very complicated issue,” said Dr. Sharon Levy, who specializes in childhood addiction at Children’s Hospital Boston.

Levy has studied the meteoric rise of home drug testing since the federal Food and Drug Administration first approved the kits in 1997. She worries not only about inaccuracy but also about eroding trust during a time when many teens are already pulling away.

Most tests use a litmus strip to detect traces of drugs or byproducts in urine. Others check hair samples or saliva. As many as 12 illicit and prescription drugs can be detected.

Still, experts worry the home tests are not sophisticated enough to catch low levels or every drug being used.

“Parents are motivated by the best of intentions,” Levy said. “They are told by marketers this is a good thing to do. But drug testing is basically a threat. And while it might have some short-term behavioral changes, I don’t think it’s a good long- term prevention method.”

Abuse by teens of prescription drugs, such as Vicodin and OxyContin, remains a problem. However, the most recent survey of 50,000 eighth-, 10th-, and 12th-graders by Monitoring the Future shows the use of illicit drugs, such as marijuana, actually is decreasing. Monitoring the Future, a study by University of Michigan researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health, has tracked drug use among adolescents since 1975.

A “surveillance society”

Still, the drug-testing business has never been better.

Last year, sales by industry leader Phamatech Inc. topped $27 million, said Carl Mongiovi, vice president of the San Diego company. He said sales included more than 431,000 marijuana tests alone.

Since Phamatech introduced the first home tests in 1999, sales have increased by more than 30 percent each year.

In Colorado Springs, single mother Amanda Beihl was one of the first to carve out a business from Internet sales. Beihl created homedrugtestingkit.com and last year sold more than 100,000 kits to test for illicit and prescription drugs and alcohol use. She said her sales are proof of a pendulum swing toward stricter parenting.

Knowing your parents are waiting at home with a drug test makes it easier to resist temptation, she said.

Still, not all parents resort to such measures to keep their kids drug-free.

Dave Meggitt, a Denver father of two teens, cannot envision a time when he would ever drug-test his kids.

“I think it’s important to trust your kids. If you put them under a microscope, you are asking for trouble,” he said.

“I talk to my kids about drugs all the time. We have good communication. I think I would know if they were having a problem,” the car dealer and mechanic said.

He also uses a Scared Straight method. He took his son on a bus ride down Colfax Avenue late one Saturday night.

“This could be your life,” he told him as they watched drunks stagger to their seats and observed drug deals.

Robert McCrie, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, sees home drug tests as a piece of a bigger parenting shift in this country.

Ours is increasingly a “surveillance society,” and parents are no exception as they log onto parental portals to check school grades or buy tracking devices for their children’s cellphones, McCrie said.

The Boulder mother who drug- tested her son sees nothing wrong with such vigilance. She and her husband took a more relaxed attitude with their older son. Today he continues to struggle with addiction. She takes no chances with her younger son.

And she could not care less what the experts say.

“You put your child in a car seat or a seat belt even though the odds are against getting in a car accident. Why would you ever take that chance of letting your child get further involved with drugs?” she asked.

“The experts aren’t living with my child, in my house. They aren’t putting their arms around them to protect them.”

That’s her job.

Officials say teen binge drinking is reaching epidemic proportions, and states and municipalities are scrambling to implement “social hosting” laws that carry stiff fines for parents whose homes are used for drinking parties, whether they know about them or not.

At least 24 states have enacted social hosting laws that fine parents several thousand dollars for each offense, said Jim Mosher, an expert tracking alcohol policies at the National Conference of State Legislatures. The fines, he said, are an effective deterrent.

Some parents consider giving a teenager a drink a rite of passage—and that contributes to high teenage drinking rates, said Richard Yoast, director of the Department of Healthy Lifestyles and Primary Prevention at the American Medical Association. “It’s a myth that adults and children are buying into, and it creates pressure on the child to drink,” Yoast said.

“The biggest problem to overcome is the fact that parents feel like they are helping their kids,” said Denise Thames, director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Georgia, “They often forget they are in fact breaking the law.”

“Unless you get everyone to do it, kids will find out one place where they can get alcohol and you will have these kinds of incidences,” “Everyone has to get on board.”

Ultimately, parents need to step up and take responsibility, “We’re not here as parents to be their best friends,” “We are here to guide them for life.”

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/12/coolparents.drinking/index.html

FAQ

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. Why was this product created?
This product was created to help parents help their children make healthy life choices and avoid the use of tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs

2. Why aren’t there more tests included in the kits?
First, drug screen tests have a shelf life of 12-18 months. After the expiration date they are still useable but their accuracy over time lessens. Second, the more screen tests are included in the kit the high the price would have to be. We are trying to keep a balance of including everything parents needs to help their teens make healthy choices and keeping the kit affordable to everyone.

3. How accurate are the drug screen tests?
Very Accurate 95%-99%. That being said there are a number of ways that false positive and false negatives can occur. Please refer to the detailed instruction sheets for in-depth information. Click here www.parentscarekit.com

4. How can we order replacement products?
All kits and individual products can be ordered at: www.parentscarekit.com

5. Why was this breathalyzer chosen?
There are many breathalyzer available in the marketplace -some cheaper and many much more expensive. This breathalyzer has the right combination of affordability, ability to be reused without requiring attachments and it has a digital read out that will give an indication of how much alcohol has been used.

6. How can we get the “kit” personalized with own town or school logos?
If you order 25 or more kits in bulk Parents Care will add your town or school logos for FREE. Please e-mail logos to: artwork.pck@gmail.com

7. Are there cost saving if you order in larger volumes?
Yes! Significant saving can be realized through volume purchases:
VIGILANCE
1-9 kits $39.00, 10-24 kits $37.00, 25-49 kits $35, 50-99 kits $33.00, 100-249 kits $31.00, 250+ $30.00.
PREVENT
1-9 kits $49.00, 10-24 kits $47.00, 25-49 kits $45, 50-99 kits $43.00, 100-249 kits $41.00, 250+ $40.00.
SAFEGUARD
1-9 kits $59.00, 10-24 kits $57.00, 25-49 kits $55, 50-99 kits $53.00, 100-249 kits $51.00, 250+ $50.00.
VERIFY
1-9 kits $79.00, 10-24 kits $77.00, 25-49 kits $75, 50-99 kits $73.00, 100-249 kits $71.00, 250+ $70.00.

8. How can we purchase the kits or products?
You can order online using Google Checkout or PayPal. Order can be called into our customer service at 1 (847) 226-6156 or faxed into 1(847)394-3990.

9. What are shipping and handling charges?
Minimum shipping and handling charges for
VIGILANCE is $7.00 for a kit single purchase
PREVENT and SAFEGUARD is $10.00 for a kit single purchase
VERIFY is $12.00 for a kit single purchase

10. Do we have to pay taxes?
Individual orders in Illinois must pay a 6.5% tax Orders from outside Illinois do not need to pay taxes. Order from not-for-profit booster clubs and other exempt groups do not need to pay taxes.

11. What is the shelf life for the drug screen tests?
12-18 months. Each test comes sealed in a plastic pouch with an expiration date imprinted on the pouch. Drug screen test should be kept out of extreme temperatures to ensure maximum accuracy.

12. How can this product be use for maximum effect?
The very best way for this product to be most effective is to have the kit widely used within your community. The more teens are operating under the same guidelines and commitments the less the peer pressure will be to make unhealthy choices.

Parents Care will sell volume purchase of Parents Care kits at a discount to Booster Clubs, Parent-Teacher Associations and School systems.

Multiple order discounts are as follows:
1-9: list price
10 to 24: – $2
25 to 49 – $4
50 to 99 – $6
100 to 249 – $8
250+ – $10

Groups can then offer the Parents Care kits to it’s member/parents at the discounted price, sell at list price and offer kits to parents in need for free or sell at list price and keep the extra money earned to cover operating costs or to fund other projects.

Further, Parents Care will personalize the kits for free with customer provided town or school images, drawings, and pictures for orders of 25 units or more. This help “communitize” the product and increase the kits effectiveness.

Images should be sent via e-mail to parentscarekitgraphics@gmail.com

.pdf or .jpeg files will be accepted and the need to be a minimum of 300 dpi.

Looking around for answers on how to get our children through their middle school and high school years tobacco, alcohol and drug free we noticed that there were testing web sites and education web site, anti-smoking web sites,anti-alcohol web site and anti-drug web sites, but we could not find something that delt with with this important issue to our satisfaction.

The testing web sites were re-active and punitive. There also seemed to be a disconect of tobacco, alcohol and drugs as separate problems.

Breathalyzers and drug tests purchased locally at drug stores were expensive overkill and did not deal at all with the core issues.

The more we investigated and the more frustrated we became the more we understood that it was not the best way to deal with this issue for our family. We also thought that many other family’s must be going through the same questions and struggles.

Our goal is the same as most parents – to help our kids make healthy choices and be able to stand up to temptation and peer pressure.

We decided the best avenue to take was to build a better program for ourselves and share it with others – a program that stressed education and prevention but also had the capabilty of immediate testing with force of consequences for negaitve behavior.

And so the Parents Care kit was born.

We also quickly came to the ralization that there were at least three groups that had slightly different needs and requirements – Middle school teens (6th-8th grade), high school teens (9th-12th grade), and “at risk” teens who need greater testing and verification in the kit. After significant market testing and parental feedback we have tweaked the kits to their current configuration.

The kits all contain 3 main elements – Awareness (the “Just Say Know” book), Prevention (the contract, quiz and discussion guidlelines), and Testing (the breathalyzer and drug screen tests)

The way the kits are packaged is specifically designed for parents to present the kit to their teens and to help begin a dialog on avoiding tobacco, alcohol and drugs between teens and their parents.

http://www.drugfree.org/dontsoundlikeyourparentsteenbrain/

Here is an excellent web site for you and your teen to visit.

http://www.abovetheinfluence.com

Government web site geared to teens.

There are 4 main ways to use one of the parents care kits:

1. Purchase a kit, educate yourself by reading the book and put away the kit without discussing with your teens and have it available “just in case”

2. Purchase a kit, educate yourself by reading the book and discuss the fact that you have the kit with your teens and that you reserve the right to screen and test them if you suspect they have use tobacco, alcohol or drugs.

3. Purchase a kit, educate yourself by reading the book, discuss the fact that you have the kit with your teens and use the contract as a basis of understanding regard behavior expectations, and that you reserve the right to screen and test them if you suspect they have use tobacco, alcohol or drugs.

3. Purchase a kit, educate yourself by reading the book, discuss the fact that you have the kit with your teens and use the contract as a basis of understanding regard behavior expectations, and tell your teen that your be testing them randomly throughout the course of the contract period. And then follow through.

Each of these of these is a perfectly legitimate way to use on of the kits. It all depends on the family struture, parenting belief system and the teens personality. There is no single answer as to what is right for your family.

Parent Care kits are the only products on the web that are specifically designed to be proactive rather than re-active.

They are built with the specific goal of getting your child through their teen years tobacco, alcohol and drug free.

We believe that by combining a knowledge, (the award winning book on teens and drugs), frank discussions on the dangers of tobacco, alcohol and drug and agreement on future behavior, (the contract) and finally the ability to verify (the breathalyzer and drug screens) the likelihood of tobacco, alcohol and drugs amongst a group of teens can be significantly reduced.

The Dapt kits were developed to help parents help their teens make healthy decision when it comes to tobacco, alcohol and drugs.

Just follow the four P’s

Prepare
Make yourself aware of the challenges and pitfalls facing your child in his/her teen years

Proactive
Engage your children in discussion tobacco, alcohol and drug and f appropriate use a Teen/Parent contract

Prevent
Have the ability to screen and test your teen to provide a positive dis-incentive to engage in neitive behavior.

Participate
Don’t keep your purchase of a parents care kit a secret. The more of your teens peers that are operating under the same guidelines the less the peer pressure will be and the more effective the program will be.

Statistic say that between 70-80 percent of homes have a fire exinguisher in them “in case” of a fire. This is a precaustionary measure that is universally thought of as a common sense step that can save lives.

Less than 2% of homes have any kind of breathalyzer or drug screen test products in them

We would like you to think of the DAPT kits like a fire extinguisher.

Parents Care DAPT kits have enormous value for your home, family and teens – whether or not the contract or testing components are ever used.

Clearly, reading the book will give the parents and children a better understanding of the dangers and issues regarding tobacco, alcohol and drugs. Knowledge and understanding is the key to helping teens make healthy decisions.

The knowledge that within their home their parents have the abiltiy to test them provides a powerful dis-incentive to engage in negative behavior.

Many parents are fearful of testing their teens becuase they are afraid that this will cause their child to think that their parents don’t trust them.

In the news today is the story of Michael Phelps use marijuana complete with a picture of him smoking from a bong. This is goign to lead to many teens thinking “If Michael Phelps can get high and can still win 7 gold medals there probably isn’t anything wrong with it. This can be used a teaching monment with your teens. Let them know the consequences he faces from his action – Loss of goodwill among his countrymen, loss of income from less endorsements, and bringing shame and notariety to his family