DRUG-PREVENTION PROGRAM TO UNVEIL EXPANDED U.S. EFFORT

Arizona-Based Project Gives Out Kits To Parents To Test
Children For Drugs

WASHINGTON - The Arizona-based co-founders of a drug-prevention
program, "notMYkid," are to be joined by lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol
today to announce the group's expanded national effort to educate
parents, school and law officials on how to talk to teens about drug
abuse.

The non-profit organization's recently broadened focus includes taking
on the escalating misuse of prescription drugs, as well as illicit
drugs.

"There were over 500 million prescriptions for prescription
medications written last year, only 3 percent of them to teenagers.
Yet, that's where the increase in (drug) abuse is," said Steve Moak of
Phoenix, who with wife Debbie founded their group in 1999.

"They're getting them right out of their parents' cabinets," Debbie
Moak said.

Former Diamondbacks pitcher Todd Stottlemyre will be with the Moaks in
announcing the program's expansion to 25 additional cities by this
fall.

As part of its drug-prevention efforts, notMYkid and one of its
offshoots, "Project 7th Grade," has been teaming with First Check
Diagnostics LLC of Lake Forest, Calif., which makes in-home drug-test
kits.

Steve Moak is a major investor in First Check, which has given
notMykid $1 million to allow middle schools to distribute the
single-use kits free to parents. Federally approved, the kits can sell
over the counter for up to $35.

Project 7th Grade was rolled out last year in Phoenix and other cities
such as Cincinnati, Dallas and Omaha, Neb., providing parents with
information and tools to communicate with their children.

The project has previously distributed free drug-test kits to parents
that check for use of such illicit drugs as marijuana, cocaine,
Ecstasy and methamphetamines. Now it will provide kits that also
detect for prescription drugs such as benzodiazepines, barbiturates
and methadone.

The Moaks, in an interview here Tuesday, said they've been motivated
to help other parents after watching their own family members struggle
with substance abuse in high school.

They've geared their efforts toward middle school students, based on
national research showing that is when kids first begin to experiment
with drugs. That is a crucial juncture at which to promote serious
communication between parent and child, they said.

"This is prevention. This is education," Stottlemyre said of the
program. "It's education for the parents. It's education for the kids."