Marijuana Policy Project

There's not enough research yet to show they are effective

Parents who are dealing with the tricky issue of possible illegal-drug use by their children have to try, above all, to establish a level of trust that makes the children believe the parents have their best interests at heart. The minute the parents bring out a drug test, that trust is all but gone. The parents are saying, in essence, we don't believe anything you've told us.

Yet the reliance on home-drug tests is soaring, even as some treatment and government officials warn of the dangers in their use.

Indiana's New Albany-Floyd County school system in April approved getting the drug-test kits from Project 7th Grade, a Phoenix, Arizona-based group, and will give them out to any parents who want them. The tests rely on urine samples to provide readings for 12 drugs, including marijuana, methamphetamine, opiates and ocycodone.

Sales of home kits have soared since they were first approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1997. Industry leader Pharmatech Inc. had sales of $27 million last year, including 431,000 marijuana test kits.

Advocates defend the tests as a good way to get parents and children to talk about drugs. "This is about prevention," says Project 7th Grade representative Rachel Gordon. "We're not looking to be punitive."

But the American Academy of Pediatrics, representing nearly 60,000 doctors, said in a report that more research is needed, because the kits have not proved to be effective. Dr. John Knight, who was the main writer of the report, says the tests are complex and that "parents are not equipped to properly interpret them." Bertha Madras of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy says that schools are better equipped to handle counseling and referrals if the drug tests show something. "By the time a parent tests, it's already far down the road," she says. "If they get a positive result, then what? Parents may or may not have the skill to proceed."

And, of course, that positive may not really be a positive. Then what?

Parents trying to cope with today's dangers need all the tools they can get. They just need to be informed and as careful as they can be in using them. Some might not be the easy answer they thought they were getting.