Home Drug Testing Raises Question Of Parents’ Trust
That modern American rite, the drug test, is about to invade the home, courtesy of a company whose mail-order kits - suggested retail: $40 - will enable parents to collect and get readings of urine samples taken from their own teens.
The unanswered question is: What mayhem will follow?
“I can see heated moral debates and child-rearing debates,” said Carl Moore, 55, a Manhattan Beach, Calif., parent who says the whole idea smacks of dark science fiction - maybe an outtake from the George Lucas film “THX 1138,” with cynical adults watching their offspring from behind two-way mirrors.
“If you could implant probes in your kid’s head,” Moore wondered, “to know what he’s doing and where he is all the time, would you really do that?”
Nix on the test kit for Moore, but the rise in teen-age drug abuse apparently has fostered a market for Dr. Brown’s Home Drug Testing System, as the device is called. Its approval last month by the Food and Drug Administration, after months of controversy about home-testing issues, now puts parents in an troubling position: Buy it? Or not buy it? Opt for trust and domestic peace? Or risk finding out and trying to make a change?
Carolee Bogue has chosen the latter route.
“I’m a detective. I look for information,” said the mother of five who began testing her children at home in 1985, long before the FDA gave its nod of approval to any such kit. She said she feels good about it because she knows she is doing what she can to help them.
“I try to piece together the puzzle of what’s really going on in my kids’ lives,” Bogue said. “I remember when I did the first test, more than 10 years ago, my daughter said, ‘Jeez, Mom, don’t you trust me?’ and I said, ‘I trust you. I love you. But I’m trying to be an A-1 mother.”’
But even Bogue, who serves as a dean of students and a drug program administrator at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, sees a darker side to it, a side that resonates of George Orwell and “1984.” Like everyone else, she wonders just how this will shake out.
If some American teens see home as a hell or jail, having Mom standing by the door with a request for a urine sample isn’t going to help the situation.
“Drug testing is real important, but it’s got to be done for the right reasons,” said Bogue, 54. “It can’t be held over the kid’s head as an ‘I gotcha!’ thing. That’s going to drive the stake into the parent-child relationship even further.”
Some parents admitted they were open-minded about giving such tests, but with reservations.
Betty, who preferred not to give her full name, said she would use the testing kit but would want to discuss it first with each of her two sons, 13 and 15.
“I would tell him that I trusted him but that I wanted to make sure,” she said. Pausing for a moment, she added: “But that’s a hard question. I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt.”
Some students - no surprise - were strongly opposed to the notion of urinating in a paper cup so their parents could see if they were using marijuana, cocaine or methamphetamines. The kit - marketed by Personal Health and Hygiene Inc. of Silver Spring, Md. - tests for six drugs, including morphine, codeine and heroin.
The demand for an at-home test for drugs has arisen in large part from recent national surveys showing that illicit drug use among children and teens has risen steadily since 1991.
Not only are young people becoming more willing to experiment with drugs, but at the same time, surveys show, parents simply don’t know what their kids are doing and they feel uncomfortable talking to them about drug use, said George Marcelle, an information specialist with the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention in Los Angeles.
So, what is the best way to test a child for drug use?
Linda Wagener, a Pasadena clinical psychologist who specializes in child and adolescent issues, said:
“I would use the test kits for anyone up to 18 who is living in his or her parents’ home and whose parents have reason to be suspicious. It works best if a parent is honest, said he cannot trust his child’s word anymore, and until that trust can be rebuilt, we are going to use drug testing.
“If a parent has already lost control,” she said, “the teen may only respond to random testing if there is a very positive reward for coming up clean and drug-free. The reward, in severe cases, might be that the teen will be allowed to continue living at home, as opposed to being shipped out.
“In less severe cases, the curfew might be extended as long as the teen tests free of drugs.”
Michael McGee, 50, a private investigator, was far more cynical about the test accomplishing anything. He and his wife, Barbara, 42, have a 13-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son.
Teens today, McGee said, just don’t put up with being tested at home.
“They tell you to go to hell if you approach them with it,” he said.
xxxx What do you think? To test or not to test: That is the question. What’s your answer? Our Generation wants to hear from teens who have an opinion about drug testing at home. Do you think it’s an invasion of privacy, or a necessary tool for some parents who think their kids may be using drugs? Call CityLine by the end of the week at 458-8800 in Spokane or 765-8811 in Coeur d’Alene. Enter category 9894 on your touchtone phone and tell us what you think. You must be a teen to participate. You’ll have 60 seconds to give your opinion, but speak slowly and clearly. Leave your name and phone number if you’d like to be interviewed for an upcoming story.