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Fears on mail-order drug test
PETA RASDIEN
Mail-order drug tests are about to open a new world of opportunity for suspicious parents and employers with a WA company planning to offer online hair strand drug testing.
The test, which is available in the US and has just been put on the market in Britain, can identify exposure to a range of drugs for the preceding six months through analysis of a hair strand.
The move has raised privacy concerns among youth and drug support groups and unions.
DNA Bio Services chief executive Gary Miller, who is based in Mandurah, said the tests would be available in about two months and would cost between $200 and $300 to trace a range of drugs or about $60 for specific drugs.
People could apply online to get a test kit sent to their home and then mail the hair for analysis and get a result in seven to 10 days.
The company already has a flourishing online paternity test business and is planning to market the hair strand drug test to employers and parents.
It is believed to be the first time the test has been offered to the public in Australia.
"The potential is vast, it can be used from a parent perspective; instead of confronting a teenager and saying are you using drugs, you can do the hair test to get peace of mind yourself," Mr Miller said.
"Then you will have the facts in front of you and then you can confront it and deal with the issue.
"Obviously one of the biggest markets (will be) employees, not just in the mining industry but the building industry, bus drivers, train drivers."
Mr Miller said parents would not require a child's consent for them to be tested but adults would have to give permission for their hair to be analysed.
Privacy Commissioner Karen Curtis said that with rapid advances in technology there had to be careful consideration of the complex privacy issues surrounding genetic information.
In a submission to the 2003 joint inquiry into the protection of human genetic information, Commissioner Curtis raised concerns about the potential unethical or unlawful use of information by testing organisations and samples being submitted without consent.
UnionsWA secretary Dave Robinson said he was vehemently opposed to the introduction of the tests in the workplace.
"I'd see that as a massive invasion of privacy that has no bearing on their competence to do their job," he said.
Family Drug Support chief executive and founder Tony Trimingham, whose son died of a heroin overdose in 1997, said though he could see the tests may be useful in the workplace he did not support parents using them.
"If somebody is under 16 then maybe you could make a case for it than if they were over that age, but generally speaking nothing beats old-fashioned communication and trust and when you start to throw drug tests at kids that is not likely to happen."
The WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Chamber of Minerals and Energy declined to comment.
From The West Australian
PETA RASDIEN
Mail-order drug tests are about to open a new world of opportunity for suspicious parents and employers with a WA company planning to offer online hair strand drug testing.
The test, which is available in the US and has just been put on the market in Britain, can identify exposure to a range of drugs for the preceding six months through analysis of a hair strand.
The move has raised privacy concerns among youth and drug support groups and unions.
DNA Bio Services chief executive Gary Miller, who is based in Mandurah, said the tests would be available in about two months and would cost between $200 and $300 to trace a range of drugs or about $60 for specific drugs.
People could apply online to get a test kit sent to their home and then mail the hair for analysis and get a result in seven to 10 days.
The company already has a flourishing online paternity test business and is planning to market the hair strand drug test to employers and parents.
It is believed to be the first time the test has been offered to the public in Australia.
"The potential is vast, it can be used from a parent perspective; instead of confronting a teenager and saying are you using drugs, you can do the hair test to get peace of mind yourself," Mr Miller said.
"Then you will have the facts in front of you and then you can confront it and deal with the issue.
"Obviously one of the biggest markets (will be) employees, not just in the mining industry but the building industry, bus drivers, train drivers."
Mr Miller said parents would not require a child's consent for them to be tested but adults would have to give permission for their hair to be analysed.
Privacy Commissioner Karen Curtis said that with rapid advances in technology there had to be careful consideration of the complex privacy issues surrounding genetic information.
In a submission to the 2003 joint inquiry into the protection of human genetic information, Commissioner Curtis raised concerns about the potential unethical or unlawful use of information by testing organisations and samples being submitted without consent.
UnionsWA secretary Dave Robinson said he was vehemently opposed to the introduction of the tests in the workplace.
"I'd see that as a massive invasion of privacy that has no bearing on their competence to do their job," he said.
Family Drug Support chief executive and founder Tony Trimingham, whose son died of a heroin overdose in 1997, said though he could see the tests may be useful in the workplace he did not support parents using them.
"If somebody is under 16 then maybe you could make a case for it than if they were over that age, but generally speaking nothing beats old-fashioned communication and trust and when you start to throw drug tests at kids that is not likely to happen."
The WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Chamber of Minerals and Energy declined to comment.
From The West Australian
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")