AMERICAN KIT TESTS FOR USE OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

Worried Parents the Most Likely Market, But First They'll Have To Get
80 Strands Of Kid's Hair

As if it isn't enough for parents to worry about whether their
teenager is using marijuana, cocaine or crystal meth, a new
drug-testing kit presents parents with the option of testing their
children for prescription-drug use, too.

With a quick snip of a clump of hair, parents can find out within days
whether a child has dipped into the family medicine cabinet, has tried
cocaine in the past three months, uses crystal meth on the weekends,
or is taking painkillers on a daily basis.

"Prescription drugs are so accessible to kids. They're in the medicine
cabinet, so they don't really think it's dangerous for them," said
Zeynep Ilgaz, president and co-founder of Confirm BioSciences, the
California-based maker of the home drug-testing kits.

"Kids think it's a safe way to get high because they're not
illegal."

Ilgaz said prescription-drug abuse, particularly of OxyContin and
Vicodin, is on the rise in the United States.

There are few Canadian statistics on the number of people who abuse
prescription drugs. But the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse says
available evidence suggests Canadians are among the heaviest consumers
of psychotropic medication in the world. And a recent study found
indications that non-medicinal use of prescription opioids is
increasingly replacing heroin.

The drug-testing kit tests hair for seven illicit drugs and five
prescription drugs, including Vicodin, OxyContin, Percocet and
Dilaudid. The company requires 80 to 100 strands of hair for the test,
which will show how much of each drug has been consumed by the person
in the past three months.

"We want it to be cut as close to the root as possible, definitely not
pulled out. That would definitely hurt."

A version of the test that did not include prescription drugs was made
available in Canada in late 2007. The new version, called HairConfirm,
was made available in Canada in December, and Ilgaz says it is selling
well, with about 10 per cent of Canadian sales coming from B.C. Retail
prices vary from about $75 to $95.

Most of the customers are parents buying the kits to test their
children, but Ilgaz said it is also being used in custody battles when
one parent suspects the other of drug abuse. When Britney Spears made
headlines in 2007 for impulsively shaving her head, there was
speculation that it was to avoid drug testing for a custody battle
with her ex-husband, Kevin Federline.

Some parents buy the kit only to put it on the kitchen counter, as a
threat of drug testing, Ilgaz said.

The hair-test kit conjures images of parents surreptitiously yanking
hairs from a sleeping teenager's head, or pulling them from a hair
brush after the child has left the house. But because the test
requires more than 80 strands of hair, it makes it very difficult to
gather a sample without consent.

"We definitely don't recommend [pulling strands from a hairbrush] for
so many reasons," Ilgaz said.

"First of all, communication is the No. 1 thing a parent should do. A
hair drug test or any drug test is not the solution to a problem. It's
just a tool to see if the kids are on drugs.

"And from a test perspective, we do want it cut from the head. When
you get it from a brush the hair on the brush is already worn out. We
don't know which part is the root end and it might be mixed up with
somebody else's hair. There are so many factors that can lead to false
results."

Micheal Vonn, policy director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association,
finds the kit worrisome because it contributes to a growing desire by
parents to monitor their children at all times.

"The whole scenario to start with is predicated on the notion that
parents should not trust their children, that open, fair and frank
dialogue is somehow inadequate in a familial setting," Vonn said.

"Certainly it's troubling, and we're going to see more and more of
this if we fail to grapple with it now."

Prescription pills are not available to kids only via their parents'
medicine cabinets and through their friends. Certain painkillers are
sold on the streets, with markup values of up to 7,000 per cent.

A 1998 study in Vancouver found that one Dilaudid tablet cost 32 cents
through a pharmacy, but had a street value of $32. Dilaudid is a
derivative of morphine and is three times stronger than heroin.