THE BLUNT REALITY

By the time teenagers across the nation reached their last year of
high school in 2007, more than 46 percent of the them admitted to
trying illicit drugs at some point during their young lives. Almost 8
percent of them acknowledged experimenting with cocaine, and nearly
one out of every three high school seniors confessed to using
marijuana within the past year.

According to the 33rd annual Monitoring the Future national survey
conducted last year by scientists at the University of Michigan's
Institute for Social Research, although drug use among teenagers is
declining in most categories, young adults are still partaking in
illegal activities.

So what's a parent to do?

Thanks to a partnership with the Sterling Heights Police Department
and TestMyTeen.com, parents in Sterling Heights who suspect their
children may be experimenting with drugs can receive free drug-testing
kits to find out for sure.

Mason Duchatschek, TestMyTeen.com president, said the organization
began partnering with police departments about three years ago. He
said there was a school district in a suburb of Milwaukee that had
three student drug-related arrests within a 45-day period at one of
its high schools, and the parents and school district wanted help.

Although TestMyTeen.com had already partnered with schools, the group
decided to expand its services to offer drug-testing kits that parents
could obtain easily and anonymously from police departments. By making
the kits available to parents, Duchatschek said, drug-testing could be
used as more of a deterrent to help teenagers stay away from illegal
activity - rather than as strictly a punishment upon confirmed
substance abuse.

"Kids were just taught to say no' to drugs," Duchatschek said. "They
weren't taught what to say after." TestMyTeen.com offers sample
speeches for parents to use, letting their children know they will be
subjected to random drug tests whether or not they have exhibited any
signs of drug use. As a result, Duchatschek said, the teenagers will
have an excuse to give peers who offer them illegal drugs: "I can't.
My parents test me."

More than $5,000 worth of free drug-testing kits were donated by the
Web-based company for use by Sterling Heights residents. The
one-time-use urine test delivers results in less than three minutes on
the appearance of 10 different illegal drugs: cocaine, amphetamine,
marijuana, opiates (including codeine, morphine, heroin and other
narcotics), methamphetamine, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, Oxycodone
(including Oxycontin), MDMA or Ecstasy, and Propoxyphene.

Results from the 2007 Monitoring the Future survey indicated at least
one in 20 high school seniors has tried Oxycontin, a powerful
painkiller with strong euphoric effects, and the potential to quickly
become physically and psychologically addictive to those who abuse
it.

Those numbers come from the teenagers themselves. According to
University of Michigan Distinguished Research Scientist Lloyd
Johnston, the principal investigator of the study, 48,025 students in
403 schools were given the surveys to answer.

"It's what we call self-administered," Johnston said. University
officials hand out the different forms for each teenager to answer
anonymously, and then the staff picks them up and tallies the results.

In the survey, an increase in Ecstasy has almost 5 percent of high
school seniors using the drug within the past year. "These prevalence
rates are not very high yet, but there is evidence here of this drug
beginning to make a comeback," Johnston said. "Young people are coming
to see its use as less dangerous than did their predecessors as
recently as 2004, and that is a warning signal that the increase in
use may continue."

Concerned parents in Sterling Heights can obtain vouchers for the free
drug-testing kits from the police department. Once residency has been
established, parents will be given an electronic voucher to use at
TestMyTeen.com, where shipping charges of approximately $8 will apply.
The Web site also offers other kits for purchase and tips for
broaching the subject of drug testing.

"The whole idea is if parents know what's going on, then the police
and schools aren't having to deal with it there," Duchatschek said. In
addition, he said that by presenting the drug test up front, parents
aren't sneaking around their child's back and all the expectations are
set. It also provides an opportunity for parents to talk to their kids
in advance, he said, reiterating how life is all about choices.

"For years, police have been the first to know when kids used drugs,
while their parents were often the last to know," Sterling Heights
Police Chief David Vinson said. "Now, we have a way to work together
to reverse that pattern."