cannabisnews.com: Parents Make Home Drug Tests Big Business Online





Parents Make Home Drug Tests Big Business Online
Posted by CN Staff on February 29, 2004 at 18:55:56 PT
By Joe Eaton, USA Today
Source: USA Today 
A cottage industry that has set up shop on the Internet meets the needs of parents who fear that their teens are using drugs — and also of teens who are afraid of getting caught. Home drug test kits, along with sometimes wacky methods of circumventing them, are available online, and many sites sell both."It's a classic cat-and-mouse game," says Allen St. Pierre of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML. "I have seen it over and over. A drug test comes out, it's thwarted, then it's re-engineered, and it goes on and on."
Home drug tests range in price and sophistication from a $2.35 dip-strip urine test for THC, the active chemical in marijuana, to a $400 law-enforcement-style wipe test, which uses chemicals to detect drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine on objects. Psychemedics, a company that tests workers for drug use in corporations, government agencies and schools, markets a $59.95 hair analysis drug test to parents via the Internet. Parents snip off a lock of their teen's hair, send it to the Psychemedics laboratory and phone in for the results. The test gives parents answers, but it also helps teens deflect peer pressure when confronted with drugs, says Raymond Kubacki Jr., president of Psychemedics. "They can say, 'Man, I'd like to try it, but my parents are testing and I'm going to get nailed,' " he says. There are other options on the Internet for worried teens. Herbal cleansers like "Fast Flush" and "Absolute Detox" promise to wipe out any trace of drug use. Additives like "Urine Luck" can be mixed in to urine samples to throw off the results. The $150 "Whizzinator," an anatomically correct urinating contraption, is worn under the pants and loaded with drug-free urine that a heating element keeps at body temperature. It comes in various skin tones and can be reused by ordering $12 syringes of dehydrated urine. Dennis Catalano, owner of Puck Technology, the company that makes the "Whizzinator," would not answer questions about the product but says the goal is to help customers protect their rights. Snipped:  Complete Article: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/drugtesting.htmSource: USA Today (US)Author: Joe Eaton, USA TodayPublished: February 29, 2004 Copyright: 2004 USA Today, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.Contact: editor usatoday.comWebsite: http://www.usatoday.com/NORMLhttp://www.norml.org/CannabisNews Drug Testing Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/drug_testing.shtml
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