An over the counter home screening kit, intended for parents to detect drug misuse in their children, went on sale in Spanish pharmacies last week. But critics say that using the kit without the suspected drug user's knowledge is not the best way for parents to tackle the issue.
At a cost of €60 (£38; $16), the new single use kit contains five test strips, which can be rubbed or wetted with fluid from the suspected misuser. It takes just three minutes to detect cannabis, cocaine, opiates, amphetamines and methamphetamines (such as MDMA or ecstasy), and LSD in urine samples and other less obvious sources, such as sweat on clothing.
The kit's availability to the public comes at a time when the Spanish public has become acutely aware of the misuse of illicit drugs among teenagers. Not only has the use of cannabis and ecstasy increased among minors, but at least four teenagers have died this year after taking ecstasy.
Ms Carmen Blau, of the kit's manufacturer, Arifarm, said: "Our goal is to help parents communicate with teenagers," adding that it will remove parents' anguish over whether or not their children are misusing drugs.
Ms Blau noted that the test can be used without minors' consent and that a positive result should be confirmed in a laboratory. Spanish civil law accepts that parental authority takes precedence and so does not require minors to give their consent. Similar tests have been used in the United States over the past four years and have recently been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.
But Dr Joan Colom, who heads the Catalan government's drug addiction unit, said: "Parents mustn't become police but should try to talk face to face with their children about taboo topics like drugs." The minors' ombudsman for Madrid, Mr Pedro Núñez-Morgades, said, "If a parent has to use a test to know whether his or her son or daughter takes drugs, it means that something in that family has failed."
Mr Javier Hernández, spokesman for the National Plan on Drugs, noted that the tests are "very useful" for monitoring people in detoxification programmes and who have given their consent, such as prisoners on temporary release to overcome a drug habit. Drug addiction expert and psychiatrist Anna Lligoña of Barcelona Hospital argues that "coercive measures don't lead to real behaviour modifications but break trust."