Perhaps you have been noticing changes in your teens behavior, some subtle and some not so subtle. Body piercings, tattoos, odd torn clothing or joining a rock band, even though he doesn’t play an instrument and can’t sing. Is he on drugs or is it just a phase that he is going though? Should you get a home drug test and force him to take it and how accurate will it be? What if it gives a false positive?

Common Drug Tests

There are a now a number of reliable home drug tests that are available for use and all of them require that they be sent back to the laboratory for testing. They test for a number of types pf drugs but the most commonly used test for marijuana, methamphetemine and opiates.

A Long Lonely Wait

The fact that they have to be sent off and require a waiting period does create its own problems. Ideally a parent would like to have a test that a kid pees on and it instantly turns red if they have been using drugs but his just isn’t the case. So, there you are stuck waiting possibly for weeks while junior ridicules you and psychs you into thinking it is coming back negative.

Inherent Flaws

The big problem is that there are ways to bypass these types of tests such as simply pouring tap water over it. Also, if your teen is in an area that he doesn’t have access to tap water he can simply use a fake rubber penis with a clean urine sample that he has purchased over the Internet.

Technology or Tradition?

So while technology has made huge progress in the area of home drug tests for teens, many parents after careful consideration choose to go with the time tested method of screaming at their kid, while making blanket accusations. In the end studies have shown that some teens are going to do what ever they want to anyway and the best that a parent can do is to hide their money from them.