Home drug kits are widely available in the Internet. Because of this, parents have taken an active role in managing the threat of drug abuse in their own families. Home drug kits have made it possible for parents to test for drugs in the confidentiality and convenience of their homes. But some parents and professionals are alarmed, claiming that these home drug kits are dangerous and far too risky. What’s the score? Let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of these home do-it-yourself drug kits.
Advantages
Home drug kits provide private, convenient and fast results. Instead of having to go to a hospital or a testing facility, home drug testing can save you the time, money and effort of traveling to and waiting outside a laboratory. Sample collections can be administered by anybody and almost anywhere. The kits come with simple guides on sample collection and a hotline to call just in case you get confused. The instructions that come with these drug testing kits are generally easy to understand. Testing at home is often used by the parents to protect their child’s privacy.
Disadvantages
Although home drug kits are private and confidential, studies have shown that coerced drug testing of children by their parents often causes damages in the parent-child relationship, especially in instances of false-positive results. Substances like poppy seeds, antibiotics and even simple cough or colds medicine can create a false-positive result that may lead to unnecessary accusations when the child is actually innocent. Many are concerned of the risk of damaging their teen’s trust toward their parents, especially when the teen is innocent of taking drugs. This may be counteracted with drug tests that require you to only collect samples at home and send the sample to qualified laboratories, where trained professionals do the analysis.
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