FREE HOME DRUG TEST WORTH A PASS

c. 1998 Cox News Service

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- While his parents watched Jay Leno, Jonathan Abdo
lighted a joint and smoked it in the shower.

It was stupid, he knew. His parents could just walk outside and smell the
weed wafting through the open window.

But Abdo liked how it made him feel -- and besides, he'd been doing it
since he was 11.

That was news to his parents, who finally found some marijuana in
Jonathan's room in March. They told Jonathan, 18, he'd have to leave the
family's West Palm Beach home if he didn't agree to pay for drug testing
and counseling to prove he was trying to beat his addiction.

He agreed, because he likes living at home until he graduates from Forest
Hill High School. And, because drug tests cost about $60 at local
pharmacies, Jonathan was very happy his dad knew Dr. Douglas Smith, an
emergency-room doctor at Good Samaritan Medical Center.

Smith is developing an at-home kit that tests for marijuana, cocaine,
amphetamines, opium and heroin. He plans to hand out kits free to parents.
He gave the Abdos kits to try.

Jonathan has taken about 10 of them and he's been drug-free for six months.
The test gives Jonathan proof. And it provides relief for his father, David.

When his dad brought the test home, Jonathan said, "bring it on."

"I had nothing to hide," he says. "It's a good way to be like, `There, I
showed you.' "

David is relieved that Jonathan's tests have proved he's been clean for six
months. Still, a therapist told him that he doubted Jonathan could give up
his long-standing habit.

"I just see what it does to people and I don't want that for (Jonathan),"
explains David, a paramedic. "I don't want that for anyone."

As Smith listens to Jonathan tell his story, he says this is the exact
result he and his group of supporters have hoped for as they have worked on
the project during the past couple years. But Smith, the father of two
boys, knows not every family will have as good an outcome and he says drug
testing isn't for every family. He just wants to make it available to
parents who do want a way to hold their children accountable.

Since an initial news story on Aug. 13, Smith has gotten about 50 calls
asking about the drug kits -- even though they won't be given away to the
general public until the end of October. That's when advisory board member
and former Secretary of State Al Haig, who lives in Palm Beach, will help
kick off the campaign.

"When those people call, it's in their voice. They're scared," says Smith,
38, sitting in his one-story home a short distance from the ocean in Delray
Beach.

With persistence, Smith has been able to attract interest from benefactors
in Palm Beach and beyond to pay for the kits and testing at SmithKline
Beecham Laboratories. About $300,000 would be needed to cover all the costs
of buying 10,000 kits and running the tests -- $30 per kit, Smith says. But
$210,000 will be enough to get the program started, he says.

He has about half of that raised, including an undisclosed amount from most
of the people on his advisory board, $40,000 from the Lattner Foundation in
Delray Beach and a $30,000 pledge from the Birmingham Foundation in Boston.
The group has spent about $23,000 so far on legal fees to set up the
corporation, grant writing, color brochures to raise money and postage and
printing, he says.

The nonprofit group, Drug Free America, doesn't plan to stop in Palm Beach
County either. Smith already is talking to three to five cities in North
Carolina and Texas, but he declined to say which ones. Smith's group is not
related to the national Partnership for a Drug Free America.

No specific event prompted Smith to develop the kits. Just many scenes from
the emergency room. Parents who came in with their children and asked for
drug tests. Kids who were stoned and seriously injured after an accident.
Smith saw their fear and wanted to help.

So he started his anti-drug crusade quietly and wherever he could.

One night, he made a key connection when Ruby S. Rinker brought a friend in
to the emergency room. Rinker already knew of Smith because of her work on
the advisory board to Good Samaritan.

He took the opportunity to tell her about his plans.

Rinker, who once worked in the Palm Beach County school system, liked the
idea so much she convinced local philanthropist John Brogan to back another
cause.

It took some doing, Brogan acknowledged, because he wasn't looking for yet
another cause to champion. He in turn introduced Smith to more potential
supporters, including Haig. Politicians have signed on, too, including Palm
Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty and U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-West
Palm Beach.

Haig says he became interested in the campaign against drugs at the end of
the Vietnam War. He recommended using drug tests because so many soldiers
appeared to be addicted.

"I saw what drugs did to young soldiers in Europe and Vietnam," Haig says.
"I've seen what it has done to our inner city. . . . It attacks everyone
touched by it in very dreadful terms."

After the idea was researched, drug testing began in the military, Haig says.

When the kits become available in Palm Beach County, parents will be able
to pick them up at the sheriff's office and the West Palm Beach Police
Department. They will be available to anyone who wants one.

Drug testing is not for every family, Smith says. For example, some parents
might want to consider counseling for family problems that resulted in the
drug use.

After parents choose to use the drug test, they should tell their children
they will test them in four weeks. That gives kids a chance to stop.

"We want them to clean out their system," Smith explains. "We don't want
them to catch their kids. We want this to be a deterrent."

After a urine sample is taken, it is sealed in a container and sent to the
lab in an envelope provided with prepaid postage.

Then the parent calls to get results. If the child tests positive, the
parent will talk to a doctor about the results to make sure the child
wasn't taking a legal drug that could show up on the test.

At local drug stores, the only kit available tests hair strands, which
generally are not considered as accurate as urine tests.

The Abdos say they bought one, but then discovered it was of no use.
Jonathan had been shaving his hair so there weren't any strands to test.

With Smith's tests, Jonathan's been able to prove he's beating his drug
habit. It's been six months since he tasted marijuana. It's been tough,
Jonathan says, because he liked how the drug made him feel.

"My friends feel sorry for me," he says. "It's not so bad. It's better than
getting kicked out of the house over a little weed."

Story Filed By Cox Newspapers

Distributed by The Associated Press (AP)

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski