Using Home Drug Tests: Home Drug Test Kit Selection

Do you find yourself being concerned about whether your son or daughter is getting high? Are you apprehensive about talking to them about it? Are you feeling stuck because you have a pretty strong intuition that they are getting high but you don't want to distance them by pushing on the issue?

If your teen is smoking marijuana and you start administering a home drug test to deter future usage are you creating a bigger problem by driving them to try more dangerous drugs that you aren't testing for? The answer is maybe. But there's an easy way to minimize the risk of that happening.

If you want a home drug test for marijuana, you can get one. If you want a home drug test for cocaine, you can get one. If your teen knows you are only testing for one drug, then it makes it easier for them to say yes to friends who offer them something else.

That's why it is important to administer home drug tests that identify the presence of a wide variety of drugs, both street drugs and the kinds of prescription drugs that kids take from the medicine cabinets of their friends and family members. Most parents aren't trained to recognize signs of drug use or symptoms of drug use. So, it really isn't reasonable to expect parents to know which drugs to test for based on observable symptoms.

That's why I contend that parents should use home drug test kits designed to detect numerous illegal drugs each time they administer a home drug test.  The effort and expense to test for one illegal drug isn't much different than testing for ten. Why risk having a false sense of security or giving your child a window of opportunity to select among a smorgasbord of other drug choices they don't expect to be tested for? 

If you want to know more about using home drug tests or picking out the best home drug test for your teen, or the steps to starting a home drug testing program, additional resources are available at places like TestMyTeen.com. Valuable tools are available at no charge including program checklists, counselor approved strategies and video tutorials.