Blood Drug Testing

Would you give your child an at-home drug test?

I've been hearing the commercial on the radio for the past few months about the at-home drug testing kit, and honestly I'm a little surprised that there's a market for this. I'm not naive, I know that drug use is more prevalent today than it has been in any decade past. I also realize that my son is only 3, so my views may change a lot 12 years from now. However, I would like to think that I will raise my son with enough trust in our relationship and my knowledge of him that I would know if he were on drugs, and be able to confront him about it instead of making him pee in a cup for me. To me, this seems like a horrible affront on a child's privacy. No, I don't believe that teenagers should be allowed to have "too much" privacy, but there are certain things that just shouldn't be done. If my parents had done this to me as a teenager, it would have completely shattered any illusion of trust between my parents and I. There wasn't much there to begin with, and I hope to have a much better relationship with my child than my parents did with me. If we ever got into a situation where I suspected he was on drugs and lying to me about it, there's obviously another problem that needs to be treated as well. I'd rather approach that problem and treat it together as a team, than attacking him and forcing drug tests on him in our home. The home should be a safety zone, where a child can feel comfortable and protected, not persecuted and attacked. That being said, I'm sure that there are situations I haven't thought of where a home drug test is acceptable, and maybe the best approach to a problem. What do you think? Do you disagree with home testing, or would you do this with your children?

Public Comments

1. I agree with you that there could be situations where a parent might want to administer a drug test. For example, suppose that the child has a history of drug abuse.
2. After reading that, I disagree with home testing. But, if they say, got caught doing drugs, then I may consider it, to make sure they stayed clean.
3. No, I don't agree ~ wouldn't do it, unless I was ordered to by a court of law for some reason, then to save my child from a life of hell in prison or on the make, I would probably resign myself to it, and hopefully we could do it together, and not on an attack level.
4. If I suspected they were using drugs you bet your a s s I would!
5. I would, and with my daughter if i was old enough to have kids id have my wife check if shes still a virgin when she gets home after hanging with her BF... sex before marriage is evil!!!!
6. I think there can be situations where you would need to confirm drug use. That would be a really bad situation and the truth being paramount to trust to get things moving towards rehabilitation. You're right about the trust issue though. I believe good parents would not need drug tests to know that something is wrong. They can find out about "symptoms" from literature or wherever, and check if their child is having these. I feel sorry for parents that would resort to testing their children for drugs. I wouldn't do it to my own.