Your kid on drugs? Trust, but verify

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So your little teenage darlings have figured out how to cheat on the drug tests you’ve been giving them. They abstain for a few days before the test. Or they dilute their urine samples. Maybe they’ve stumbled on a dog-eared 1987 copy of Abbie Hoffman’s ‘Steal This Urine Test’ and found tips on how to avoid getting caught by Mom and Dad via bodily fluid evidence.

Parents, San Diego-based Confirm BioSciences is helping you regain control with a home-based hair follicle drug test kit called HairConfirm Prescription. Now, all you have to do is tiptoe into your teen’s bathroom and pluck a few hairs from a brush. Or find a few fresh hairs on the pillow after your adolescent has left for school.

Unlike urine or saliva tests, which can confirm drug use within the last two or three days, the hair testing kit can give a drug profile for the last 90 days, including 12 types of legal and illegal drugs. One satisfied customer was quoted in the company’s news release. ‘I can tell you first hand how easy it is for families to dismiss the visible signs of drug abuse in a loved one,’ said Leigh Lehmann, a HairConfirm customer who purchased the kit for a family member. ‘But numbers don’t lie, and the detailed information provided by this product will help bring people together to deal with it. I wish I had done this years ago.’

The kit costs $89.99. When it comes to monitoring your teen, it is, as the news release says, a ‘more dignified method to use.’

--Susan Brink