Troubled Teens Resources

Teen crisis intervention starts long before drugs show up. It starts with communication, education, and clear rules and a clear outline of consequences. Parents are gathering up every tool they can to fight potential drug problems and one controversial tool that just made it into the arsenal are home drug testing kits.

However, parents are being met with opposition from the usual suspects; the government and American Academy of Pediatrics. Since the whole thrust of these two institutions is towards interfering in a family’s life, they counsel that drug testing your own teen is far too complicated, advising that schools and doctors can best handle your child, not you.

“…the Bush administration backs random school drug testing, arguing schools are better equipped to help with counseling and referrals if a problem is found.

“By the time a parent tests, it’s already far down the road,” Madras said. “If they get a positive result, then what? Parents may or may not have the skill to proceed.”

In March, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement opposing both home drug testing and involuntary drug testing in schools. The medical group prefers worried parents have their children tested by qualified doctors or treatment specialists because of the possibility of error or tampering.”
(Source)
(H/T:Livonia Save Our Youth)

There was a time when parents sought counsel outside of the family by their own volition and as rarely as possible. Parents have to use their own common sense and evaluate their own teenager. The point is that this journey of raising a teen is ultimately the parents’ burden and duty. If it were not so easy to abdicate that duty, perhaps more parents would not be so prone to do so.