TEST KITS LET PARENTS CHECK KIDS FOR DRUGS

MELBOURNE BEACH -- Parents who suspect their kids are abusing drugs can head
straight to the local police department -- not to turn them in, but
hopefully to turn them around.

Melbourne Beach police are offering free at-home drug- and alcohol- testing
kits to parents, no questions asked, through March 31.

"We're not looking to make arrests," police Chief David Syrkus said Friday.
"Hopefully we're giving parents peace of mind and a tool to get their kids
some help before they get arrested, or worse, end up in the hospital."

Beginning April 1, the department will sell the basic kits for $4 and
more-advanced kits, which screen for several drugs, for $12. Similar kits
sold over-the-counter or on the Internet run $16 to $40.

The agency, located in Brevard County's smallest beachside town, is the only
police department in Central Florida and the second in the state to offer
the kits through the Law Enforcement Against Drugs program. Since Feb. 1,
Melbourne Beach has given away about a dozen kits, Syrkus said.

The Marco Island Police Department in South Florida started its program in
December.

During the past few weeks, most of Brevard's police departments have
contacted LEAD, a Michigan-based company, about starting similar programs,
said Michael Christhoff, LEAD's Florida representative.

Kits are available that can screen for the presence of alcohol, cocaine,
marijuana, methamphetamine, morphine, Ecstasy, PCP or other designer drugs.
Accompanying each kit is a brochure describing some of the common traits and
symptoms that parents should look for in children suspected of drug and
alcohol abuse.

A Web site sponsored by LEAD provides telephone numbers for local counselors
and treatment facilities.

"I think it's a good idea," said Brittney Marriott, 17, a senior at
Satellite High School. "Part of being a parent is watching out for your
kids."

Margie Chodorow, a Melbourne Beach mother of two elementary-age children,
said she was pleased to learn the kits are available to parents.

"But I would only use it as a last resort," she said. "I would have to feel
very strongly that my kids were using drugs before I would consider it.

"If I thought it was a chronic problem or if I thought they were lying, I
would," she said. "But I would never support doing it on a routine basis."

Some psychologists and critics of the program said parents might lose their
children's trust or alienate them by forcing them to undergo drug testing.

But Syrkus said the benefit of testing sometimes outweighs the risk of
harming the parent-child relationship.

"I think some people are trying to turn this into a children's-rights issue
or a trust issue," he said. "If their kids are using drugs, the trust issue
has already been thrown out the window.

"If we can save one life, it's well worth it, regardless of what the critics
say."