TOUCHED BY DRUGS

Wiping a Keyboard or Other Surface Can Now Tell Parents and Employers
If the User Is, Well, a User

Early last year Kelly Merriman, the then-33-year-old daughter of
Saskatoon MLA Ted Merriman, went public about her struggle with
crystal meth, a highly addictive street form of methamphetamine, or
speed.

The woman had had lots of experience with various drugs -- coke, LSD,
ecstasy -- but crystal meth quickly pulled her down and nearly killed
her. By the time she went into recovery, she'd lost 45 lb. in two
months, had suffered liver damage and was living on chocolate milk.
Her coming out was not only brave, but it also put a face on
Saskatchewan's increasingly worrisome drug problem -- one the
provincial government has been actively grappling with since 1998.
According to a 2004 study, crystal meth use among respondents in the
province was six per cent for 12- to 14-year-olds, 20 per cent among
the 15-to-18 group, and 48 per cent for 19- to 24-year-olds. So it's
hardly a surprise that a drug-detection technology used by U.S.
Customs and the FBI had its Canadian launch in Saskatchewan for
workplace and home use.

Called DrugWipe, the product can detect minute amounts of drugs -- as
little as 2.5 nanograms -- on almost any surface, as well as on people.

Analysis of the wipes can also identify the drug as amphetamine,
cocaine, marijuana or opiate. Originally developed in Germany as a
non-invasive way for law-enforcement agents to check for drugs,
DrugWipe is now being marketed to employers and parents. "Companies
would say to us, 'We have to have a drug-free workplace,' but human
rights legislation prevents us from doing drug testing," says Dennis
Birtles, spokesman for the company Investigations Canada and CEO of
Evident Corporate Investigations in Saskatoon. With DrugWipe, he adds,
"you're not necessarily testing the actual employee but surfaces owned
by the company that employees touch -- keyboards, mouses, steering
wheels, forklift controls.

It will tell an employer we found traces of cannabis on this area and
cocaine on the loading dock so the employee himself is somewhat protected."

For kids, though, it's a different story.

For $250, Birtles' company -- six others across Canada will soon be
offering the same service -- sends people out to wipe down areas of a
child's room, including computers and joysticks. The sample is taken
back to a lab and technicians identify any drugs that are detected.
"We go back, talk to the parents, say 'This is what we found; this is
where we found it,' " Birtles explains.

The company puts the parents in touch with a drug counsellor. "Some
parents gravitate right away to the counselling route; others want to
deal with it themselves."

Birtles sought legal advice on the implications of the drug-detection
technology, as children clearly don't have the same protection of
their rights and privacy as employees. "In Saskatchewan, it's parents
that control the home, and if their children are under 15 we can test
their bedrooms," he says. In addition, with a second tool called
PreScreen5, children under 16 can themselves be tested with a wipe to
the forehead, palms and fingertips. "Parents have been sneaking into
kids' rooms for years and listening in to phone calls," Birtles adds.
"Children tend to tell parents what they think parents want to hear,
not want they need to know." In the case of drug use -- particularly
drugs like crystal meth -- it's a question of life and death, he says.
"Do you want to sneak around or do you want to go to their funeral?"

While the detection tool provides parents with the information they
want -- and may, in some cases, alleviate long-held fears -- some see
it as a slippery slope. "The kids will just become better at being
deceptive," says David Wolfe, RBC chair in children's mental health at
the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and a professor of
psychiatry and psychology at the University of Toronto. "They'll
simply go off-site." The bigger issue, he adds, is really one of
principle. "Is this really the way to approach this? Once you move
into that, you're in a competition with adolescents. And the lack of
trust will really escalate.

It's a desperate measure for desperate people."

Instead, Wolfe says, concerned parents should talk to their kids and
deal with the issue of drugs in the broader community -- with the
school principal about policies, with other parents about monitoring.
"The issue of crystal meth is a tough one," he adds, "because it
really is a serious problem. It's an adult issue, not just a teen issue.

It's our responsibility to try to eliminate the problem, not just
catch them doing it." Parents have to give their kids scare messages
in terms of the harm that drugs can cause, Wolfe contends, "but they
also need to give an opportunity for an alternative: what do I do if I
run into this stuff?

What if I do it and I like it?" Often, encouraging children to talk to
another adult they trust -- parents are frequently too emotionally
involved -- may make them feel more trusted and responsible. "You
can't make them change," Wolfe says. "They have to do it."