Hi! My name is Steven Brubaker, President of DrugPlus Testing & Supply, LLC. As a parent of a soon-to-be teenager, the purpose of this website is to help all parents with the prevention of illegal drug, alcohol and tobacco use and abuse by their teenager. And what is one powerful tool to deter or detect substance abuse by your teenager?
Very simple - Accountability and Consequences
It really is a simple formula.
Accountability - test your teenager for drug, alcohol and nicotine use. Your kid claims he is not using? No problem! He or she should have no resistance, to you as a parent, confirming their claim with a home drug testing kit.
Consequences - reward good behavior (result of a negative screening) or
- lose privileges for bad behavior (admits use with positive screening).
Important note: In the event your child tests positive for a specific drug, stay calm. Give him or her, an opportunity to explain a possible reason for the positive test. If they do not admit to using drug’s, then your child should have no problem submitting to a drug test conducted by a local certified lab (look in yellow pages or visit LabCorp website locator) for a more extensive testing procedure. Since time is of the essence, most of these labs take walk-ins. Results of lab conducted drug test are reviewed by a physician, known as a Medical Review Officer (MRO). We recommend that you consult your family physician or a professional counselor if you suspect substance abuse by your teenager, regardless of a positive or negative test result.
What about Trust?
Trust is one of the first casualties of alcohol and other drug use. Lying, even by previously honest young people, is universal once drug use begins. Families who rely on the word of their children when it comes to drug and alcohol use, are engaged in dangerous wishful thinking, and often involved in denial of a potentially serious problem.
Alcohol and other drug use promote the twin corridors of family trust – denial and
dishonesty. To the drug user, deceit and lying are a way of life. All of the love and caring
in the world will not overcome this reality.
Drug and alcohol tests are the only objective way of establishing that a person has not
recently used these substances. Then, and only then, can you know whether your child is
telling the truth about alcohol and drug use. A negative test is a reinforcement for open
and honest communication between parents and children. A positive drug test is a call
to action to end the use of drugs. Informed and involved parents are most likely to help
their children grow up healthy, happy and drug free.
Remember that loving, involved parents routinely “check up” on their children. You
may have checked with another parent to confirm that your child has his or her
permission to eat a meal or stay overnight with a friend, but most parents have contacted
other parents to determine if a party or other events their children will be attending will
be chaperoned. Do you check your child’s homework to ensure that the “Yes,
I finished it” statement is true or not?
This is considered a part of routine parental responsibility. Using drug testing is an extension of this vitally important role of responsibility. I see it as confirming your trust in your child.
Test to deter and prevent
Drug and alcohol testing can also be used as a prevention technique. In other words, the primary goal of testing is to provide a strong incentive not to use drugs or alcohol, especially by young people. This simplest drug testing policy to establish with your teen is to have a drug test kit available to use and inform your teen that a random drug test could be given anytime. Additionally, when your teenager is approached by a peer to partake in the use of drugs, alcohol or smoking (and they eventually will if not already), a drug testing policy in your home gives your kids a legitimate reason to decline. What better response by your teenager to say to a friend or at a party, "Sorry, my parents may test me for drugs, alcohol or nicotine at any time!"
Drugs where I live?
I recently became aware of a startling fact from the DEA.gov website about drug trafficking in my state. "Virginia cities situated along Interstate-95 are vulnerable to 'spillover' drug distribution from traffickers moving between the two major eastern drug importation hubs of New York City and Miami. The Shenandoah Valley region contains the highest percentage of methamphetamine abusers in the state".
And to think that only the big cities have drug problems? Think again. I live here in the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia. And I have learned that even in the rural community were I reside, we are not immune to rampant use of illegal drugs.
Scary... so I started a company and a campaign to help parents talk to their kids about the danger of using illegal drugs, alcohol and tobacco. This website is designed to provide you, the parent, with tools and resources that will make your job easier in becoming an informed parent about substance use and to help discourage your kid from experimenting with or using illegal drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
Not my kid, right? You are kidding yourself if you think your teenager is not being exposed to drugs, alcohol and smoking and has been tempted to use through peer pressure.
Let me share some facts and stats with you, pertaining to drug, alcohol and tobacco use amongst our kids in the United States. (For the full report source - Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) 2007 Survey).
Drug Use
* Among youths aged 12 to 17, the current illicit drug use rate in 2007 was 9.5 percent.
* The rate of current marijuana use among youths aged 12 to 17 was 6.7 percent in 2007.
* Among persons aged 12 or older who used pain relievers, nonmedically, in the past 12 months, 56.5 percent reported that the source of the drug the most recent time they used was from a friend or relative for free. Another 18.1 percent reported they got the drug from just one doctor.
Alcohol Use
* Slightly more than half (51.1 percent) of Americans aged 12 or older reported being current drinkers of alcohol in the 2007 survey .
* In 2007, 56.3 percent of current drinkers aged 12 to 20 reported that their last use of alcohol in the past month occurred in someone else's home, and 29.4 percent reported that it had occurred in their own home.
Tobacco Use
* In 2007, an estimated 70.9 million Americans aged 12 or older were current (past month) users of a tobacco product. This represents 28.6 percent of the population in that age range.
* The rate of current cigarette use among 12 to 17 year olds was 9.8 percent and smokeless tobacco use was 2.4 percent in 2007 .
Initiation of Substance Use (First-Time Use) within the Past 12 Months
* In 2007, an estimated 2.7 million persons aged 12 or older used an illicit drug for the first time within the past 12 months. A majority of these past year illicit drug initiates reported that their first drug was marijuana (56.2 percent).
* The illicit drug categories with the largest number of past year initiates among persons aged 12 or older were nonmedical use of pain relievers and marijuana use.
* In 2007, there were 775,000 persons aged 12 or older who had used inhalants for the first time within the past 12 months; 66.3 percent were under age 18 when they first used.
* Most (85.9 percent) of the 4.6 million past year alcohol initiates were younger than age 21 at the time of initiation.
* Most new smokers in 2007 were under age 18 when they first smoked cigarettes (59.7 percent).
Youth Prevention-Related Measures
* Almost half (49.1 percent) of youths aged 12 to 17 reported in 2007 that it would be "fairly easy" or "very easy" for them to obtain marijuana if they wanted some. Around one quarter reported it would be easy to get cocaine (24.5 percent).
* A majority of youths aged 12 to 17 (91.0 percent) in 2007 reported that their parents would strongly disapprove of their trying marijuana or hashish once or twice.
* In 2007, 11.3 percent of youths aged 12 to 17 reported that they had participated in substance use prevention programs outside of school within the past year. Almost four fifths (77.9 percent) reported having seen or heard drug or alcohol prevention messages from sources outside of school. Most (59.6 percent) youths reported in 2007 that they had talked with a parent in the past year about the dangers of drug, tobacco, or alcohol use.
