PRIME SUSPECT

Police Have Them, Olympic Committees Have Them - And Now You Can Have One,
Too. Patrick Weir Reports On A Drug Testing Kit For Worried Parents

So your 16-year-old daughter is looking out of sorts. Keeping later nights,
she seems to be surviving on little sleep and is generally vague and
irritable when you ask her how things are. You can't be sure, but hasn't
your 15-year-old son lost a little weight recently? Not wolfing down the
food with quite his customary gusto? Aren't you worried?

Judging by the alarm bells ringing at Surescreen Diagnostics Ltd, your
child could actually be a walking, mumbling repository for any number of
drugs doing the rounds in the pubs and clubs where he spends so much time
losing himself. Between 40% and 50% of young people in Britain today have
tried one substance or another, so who knows? But don't panic; Surescreen
has the answer: if you can get your recalcitrant teenager to give you a
urine sample before he crawls into bed, the Derby firm's home
drug-screening kit will do the rest.

Currently obtainable by mail order and due to be marketed nationally in the
next few weeks by a chain of major chemists, the At Home Drug Test is the
first screening kit in the UK that has been approved by the US Food and
Drug Administration. Costing ?24.99, the one-use kit offers a 99% accurate
test for amphetamines, cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy and heroin. Surescreen's
principal scientific officer, Jim Campbell, insists that the test has a
beneficial role to play for both parents and children.

"Whether referred to us by their GP or an NHS trust treatment centre, an
increasing number of anxious parents have contacted us over the last two
years to buy the test. There is a very real demand."

The kit comprises a urine cup, gloves, an instruction manual and five test
strips. Once armed with your urine sample (this one will surely stump most
parents) you dip the test strips into it; if you get a positive result you
then send the strips and urine to Surescreen, who will run further tests to
determine which drug has been used. The presence of prescription drugs
won't trigger an inaccurately positive reading.

"When the parent rings us for the results, the interpretations of a
positive result, in terms of the drug's effects and its health risks, are
discussed," says Campbell. Simple.

However, many drugs experts are sceptical about the benefits of the kits.
Home testing can establish whether a drug has or has not been recently
taken, but it cannot determine previous or future use. And the effects on
the parent-child relationship, they say, could be devastating.

"I'll give you a gold clock if you can show me a relationship between a
15-year-old and a parent where such testing would help," says Gerv McGrath,
director of Addaction, a drug counselling group in Derby. The kit, he says,
is simply a cynical exploitation of parents which has no therapeutic value
in the home.

"It's not conducted in an informed way by the parent as it doesn't
recognise that alcohol is the main entry point to drug abuse. The test
can't show this. And how could a parent possibly use it in a trusting
relationship? Working from the position that says, 'I don't trust you,' it
has no benefit whatsoever. It certainly won't help a difficult relationship."

What's more, he adds: "If the test is negative, it doesn't tell you much.
Your child might not have been using drugs today or last week, but what
about three months ago or next year?"

McGrath advises worried parents to spend the UKP25 on taking the child out
for a meal and talking things through. "Testing won't prevent drug abuse
and is a complete waste of time and money. And how parents with three or
four children are expected to shell out for it is anyone's guess."

Dr Harry Markantonakis, a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist at
West Bromwich's Edward Street hospital, insists that trust has been broken
once a child tries drugs. But while he would consider using the test on his
own children, he is also aware of the risks he would be running.

"If a parent were to suddenly ask a child to take the test, without any
prior dialogue, that would be very wrong. Otherwise, how you do it is
crucial, but in good relationships I'm not convinced that it would always
necessarily cause conflict.

"But a parent could overreact to symptoms that are typical in teenagers.
Seeing your daughter flushed and bleary-eyed on occasions is nothing to
worry about, and if you're asking me if that represents a case for this
test, I'd say forget it."