old article i found, does anybody know if this happened, how...

old article i found, does anybody know if this happened, how many chemists there in and how many they have sold






Home drug test kits comingBy Tony Vermeer
May 28, 2006 03:15am
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PARENTS would be able to drug-test their children at home with a new do-it-yourself kit to be sold at chemists from next month.

The saliva test can detect the presence of marijuana, amphetamines, heroin and cocaine and returns results within seven minutes.

Its manufacturer says the kit is an important tool for parents who are trying to steer teenagers away from drugs.

But the prospect of home drug-testing has divided family organisations and alarmed civil libertarians, who claim that it breaches privacy laws.

Other drug-testing systems exist, but most require urine samples and don't provide quick results.

The Perth-based Harrington group has signed a deal to distribute Oraline saliva test kits through 2000 pharmacies nationwide. They will sell for $25.

Managing director Peter Boonen said the device used technology developed in the US by a subsidiary company that could detect extremely low levels of marijuana in the body.

Specific drugs show up as one of four lines on the test strip. The product pinpoints drug use to within the previous 24 to 48 hours, he said.

Mr Boonen, who has teenagers aged 13, 15 and 16, said he was prepared to practise what he preached.

"We have them in the fruit bowl at home, but we haven't had to use them yet because we trust our kids.

"It should be a case-by-case basis, but at least if you are giving parents the tools they have the option and it's leverage for kids to resist peer pressure."

Home drug-testing has grown rapidly in the US with more than 200 websites selling kits for parents and increasing numbers of schools introducing student testing.

Mr Boonen said he had been approached by Australian schools interested in using the product, particularly in situations where liability was an issue, such as in an accident at school. He said the main market for the kit would be employers who wanted to drug-test workers.

But New South Wales Civil Liberties Council president Cameron Murphy said that forcibly drug-testing a person was against the law.

"It's none of the parents' business," he said. "They (parents) should concentrate on their relationship with their children."

Paul Leary of Toongabbie, a drug and alcohol counsellor and father of five children aged between 11 and 18, said he believed in trust before testing. He said the test kits should only be used if a family had already suffered a drug crisis.

But his 18-year-old son, Josh, said that he was opposed to drug-testing.

"Parents should have enough trust in their kids to be able to talk to them and not to have to (test)," he said.

National Drug Research Institute director Professor Steve Allsop warned that saliva testing could produce false positives.

As for parents using it, he said: "I think it would be the last thing I would do, not the first thing I would do."

Central Coast father Keith Mitchell said he believed the kit would damage trust between parents and their children.