Parents: Are you worried your teenaged son or daughter is experimenting with drugs?
You're not alone.
According to the Michigan Department of Community Health, more than 15,000 kids per day try drugs for the first time, and the average age they start experimenting is 13.
In conjunction with the Wayne County Substance Abuse Coalition, HYPE Athletics is offering free drug test kids to parents. There are 1,000 kits available, which test for 12 different substances. Tests are 99 percent accurate.
This includes seven illicit drugs and five prescription drugs:
- Marijuana
- Cocaine
- Opiates (heroin)
- Methamphetamine
- Ecstacy
- Amphetamines
- Phencycidine (PCP)
- Tricyclic antidepressants
- Barbituates
- Benzodiazepines
- Methadone
- Oxycodone
Kits can be picked up at the HYPE Recreation Center, located at 23302 W. Warren Ave. in Dearborn Heights.
Questions? Call 313-436-0043.
Lee Jacobsen
7:08 pm on Thursday, February 7, 2013
I would suggest that the drug testing also extend to the parents who get food stamps and other forms of govt assistance , such as Section 8 housing. Why? If you can afford to be doing drugs, you can easily afford to pay your way with regards to food and housing. Also, by doing the test as parents, you are showing your kid, by example, that the process is harmless and safe, and only has consequences if you are a user. If a kid sees his parent or parents refusing to take a test that the kid is expected to take, can we (and the kid) logically assume that the parents have something to hide, are on drugs and should not be receiving govt support and freebies?
My guess is that parents will say no, that drug testing is an infringement of some sort of rights, especially if they are users. For them, not clean legit food stamp users, that makes the food stamps as simply enablers for druggies. Any cash they earn goes for drugs, not food, and the stamps supplement their lifestyle. That is wrong. Why should I have a say? My tax dollars are paying for those food stamps, and that gives me, and the govt, the right to insist that our taxes are being spent wisely.
So, can we have free drug tests for both parents and kids with the denial of food stamps in the mix? Kids can't get food stamps, so only 'responsible' adults will face the challenge.