Do home drug-testing kits help or hurt teens?
September 10th, 2006 by ddetox
By Sarah Childress
Newsweek
It took Mike Peterson three years to find out that his 15-year-old son had a drug problem. He’d noticed that the once-charming A and B student with a love of Superman paraphernalia had become angry and withdrawn, and was in danger of flunking out of school. But his son repeatedly denied using drugs. Finally, at home in St. Clair, Mo., Peterson turned to the Internet, where he found a site that sold home drug-testing kits for parents. He told his son he wasn’t leaving the house until he turned over a urine sample. Peterson was stunned and hurt when his son tested positive for cocaine, marijuana and amphetamines. “He had a problem—a genuine problem,” Peterson says. “Thank God we caught it before he hit rock bottom.”