The Controversy Over Home Drug Tests for Teens: Will Your Child Need Inpatient Drug Rehab?

Stores are now selling a home drug test for parents who are inches away from calling an inpatient drug rehab center because they suspect their children are using drugs. To use the test, simply pull a hair from the head of your child and run it through the test.

Sounds simple doesn’t it? While the test itself might be simple, the factors and worries behind it are not. In California, drug rehab centers are concerned these new tests might cause a rash of unnecessary calls to the centers among many other family problems and complications.

The Moral Conflict

Many inpatient drug rehab programs feel that if things have gotten to the point that parents are going to take a hair sample for drug testing, it is time to sit and talk with their kids and look for other possible signs of drug abuse. For them, giving your child a drug test without their knowledge brings up questions in terms of trust and betrayal.

The biggest concern is that the focus of talking to kids for the purpose of prevention will be passed over since now, all parents have to do is pull out a strand of their kid’s hair. They can even do it while the kids are sleeping.

On the other side of the fence, manufacturers and many family groups feel the in-home drug tests could help addicts get help sooner and minimize the impact on everyone involved. They feel the test is a valuable tool for those who already strongly suspect drug abuse.

The results can be used to face the teen and convince them to go into a California drug rehab center or other treatment program in the US. It also helps in situations where the child is uncooperative or even violent.

The Accuracy of the Test

In-home drug testing is over 99% accurate, however this does not take contamination into consideration. Say your child goes to a public washroom and runs his hand through his hair. The transfer of DNA can occur that easily and the tests cannot distinguish between the two sets of DNA. In professional California drug rehab and testing centers, precautions are in place to eliminate this possibility.

As if a false positive result isn’t enough, the repercussions of falsely dragging your child to an inpatient drug rehab center only to find out it was a mistake can have life-long, negative effects on everyone. Home tests also cannot detect some drugs and substances, which could lead to false negatives causing severe drug problems to be ignored until it is too late.

In the end, choosing whether to use a home drug test is up to the parents to decide. If you are already considering testing, it may be in your best interest to seek the help of a professional California drug rehab center or other treatment center in your area. This way, even if you end up enrolling your child in an inpatient drug rehab program, you and your child will have the support needed to negotiate through the troubled waters and make it through the ordeal.

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