SEEING IS BELIEVING: TEENS' PARENTS COULD SOON USE EYE-SCAN DRUG TEST

The Eyes Don't Lie.

So say several local substance abuse counselors who want to bring a
new type of drug testing machine to Martin County.

They say the cutting-edge computer technology -- which scans the human
eye to detect drug use -- could help local parents seeking more
effective ways to prevent their children from turning to drugs.

Currently, few parents inquire about drug testing options for their
children. That might change, counselors say, if detecting drug use
didn't require a urine or blood sample -- if a drug test becomes as
simple as peering into an ATM machine.

That's possible with the PassPoint Substance Abuse Screener, which
determines the presence of drugs and alcohol by recording the way the
eye reacts to light.

Martin County officials hope to purchase a PassPoint machine -- for
$100,000-- by January, said Anita Cocoves, the county's Health and
Human Services Administrator.

Cocoves said if the plan would be to set up the machine in a location
with easy access for concerned parents, such as a kiosk outside health
offices.

"Now, the parent can say to their kid 'I'm picking you up at the party
at midnight but I'm taking you by the machine. So tell me the truth,
what have you been doing?'" Cocoves said.

Assistant State Attorney Pam Roebuck, Martin County's juvenile
prosecutor, acknowledged the subject of drug testing can create "great
conflict" between parent and child.

"They'll accuse the parents of distrust," Roebuck said. "It's an
individual parenting style, to trust -- but verify."

"Twelve or 13 is not too young to begin this process," she added.
"I've talked to many kids in this community who say by the eighth
grade or before ... they're exposed to everything that's available
across this country."

How it works

The best argument for parents to drug test their kids is it gives them
"an out" when dealing with peer pressure to dabble in drugs, Roebuck
said. "It gives them a reason to say no."

That's where the PassPoint machine can help, Roebuck and Cocoves
say.

"If the kid knows that there's a possibility of being tested, he's
going to have more of a possibility of keeping in line," Cocoves said.

For parents who want their children tested, the process would work
like this:

First, a "baseline" test would be done, a combination of the eye scan
and an urine analysis to ensure a "clean reading" -- that there are no
drugs in the system. After the baseline is established, if parents
suspect the child is using drugs, they would return to the PassPoint
location.

An initial location could be the current Health and Human Services
offices on East Ocean Boulevard.

In about 18 months, when the offices move into the new county
community service building on Willoughby Boulevard, Cocoves hopes
PassPoint could be set up with easy access to parents and their children.

"You could have an alcove that's lighted, and you've got a camera
there just like you would outside an ATM," she said.

The PassPoint machine is about the size of a filing cabinet and looks
similar to vision machines used at driver's license offices. A test
takes about 30-seconds and can be self-administered by punching a pre-
assigned ID number into a key pad on the machine, Cocoves said.

Similar to a urine test, the PassPoint scans for the eight most
frequently detected substances, including marijuana, cocaine,
amphetamines and alcohol.

Cocoves said a huge advantage over urine-based tests is that the
results can't be altered to mask a positive result.

"It's not like they could send in someone else, because the computer
knows what your eyeball looks like," she said.

She said PassPoint is "just as accurate" as other drug tests, such as
urine, hair and saliva tests.

Paying for it

In Martin County, officials have identified two potential sources for
the $100,000 cost of PassPoint.

One is a teen court fee trust account, which contains about $200,000
and is administered by Chief Circuit Judge Cynthia Angelos. Another
possibility is the county's Drug Trust Fund, which contains about
$62,000 in fees collected from drug court programs, Cocoves said.

Those funds are allocated by County Administrator Russ Blackburn,
generally by recommendation from the county's Drug and Alcohol Abuse
Advisory Committee. The advisory group, appointed by the county
commission, is expected to appeal to county officials to help buy the
system, Cocoves said.

Martin County's PassPoint primarily would be used be used for
juveniles and adults who are going through drug court and receive
regular testing. By saving the money now spent on chemicals and other
expenses involved in urine drug testing, Cocoves estimated PassPoint
could probably pay for itself in five years.

She said she hopes parents would be charged only a nominal fee to have
their children tested to establish a baseline. They then would be re-
tested for free, as often as they want.

Currently, Cocoves said she doesn't see many parents request
information about how to test their kids for drug use. And that
puzzles her.

"I don't think they realize it's available to them," she
said.

A urine drug-screening kit is available for $5 from the Health and
Human Services office at 38 East Ocean Blvd. According to department
records, 35 kits were sold last year to parents who wanted to test
their children for drug use, Cocoves noted.

Diane White, a case manager with Health and Human Services, said that
beyond drug court cases, she fields about six drug-testing inquiries a
from local parents a month.

"That's not many at all," White said. "It's here and we are able to do
it."

'A lot of denial'

Health professionals find the few requests for testing surprising,
especially in view of last year's Florida Youth Substance Abuse
Survey, which measures teenage drug and alcohol use throughout the
state. In 2002, Martin County ranked second in the state in teenage
marijuana use and seventh in the state in alcohol use.

"You've got all this use going on and yet, you have resources like
this that aren't being used by the community," said Cocoves. "There's
a lot of denial that goes on in the community.

At a "community mobilization" workshop Wednesday, students and experts
agreed parental denial is a key obstacle to developing a strategy to
combat teenage drug and alcohol use.

Some parents resist

Robyn Cleghorn, the safe and drug free schools coordinator for the
Martin County School District, said many parents would have a
difficult time testing their children for drugs.

"We've got parents that won't go into their kid's bedroom because they
see that as a violation of privacy," she said. "I really have no idea
how many parents would take advantage of something like that."

Cleghorn said most teenagers, if asked, would probably say the ones
who are not on drugs would volunteer to be tested. The ones who are
using would likely put up a fight.

"The kid that's displaying signs or symptoms ... is going to be
resistant and they probably are not going to want to get in the car
with the parent to get their eyes scanned," she said.

Parents already dealing with a child who has used drugs would be more
likely to use the PassPoint system, Cleghorn said, but added that
overall, those "are very few parents."

"They are not beating down the doors to go see their doctors right now
to have their kid drug tested," she said.