According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, in 2012 about 23.9 million people aged 12 and older used illicit drugs or abused medicines like pain killers and stimulants. Mitchellville police chief Kary Kinmonth is encouraging parents to get free drug tests through website “Test My Teen.” The website offers test kits for multiple drugs including kits to test for prescription drugs. According to the website, one package tests for 10 drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA (Ecstasy) and other drugs costs $18.99.

Johnston Police Chief Bill Vaughn met with Mitchellville Police Chief Kary Kinmonth the week of Oct. 6 to discuss the idea of the ability to allowing free drug testing through “Test My Teen.”

Guidance counselor Julie Fulton said she would talk about options other then drug tests. “If I had a student that I’m concerned about regarding substances or if a parent is concerned about their student regarding substances, I would refer them to the great resources that exist in our community,” Fulton said.

Sophomore Ben Smlatic would be calm if his parents asked him to do a drug test at random.”They are doing their job as a parent to make sure that I am safe,” Smlatic said, “I don’t do drugs so I’m pretty sure I’d pass.”

Many employers require their employees to take drug tests before they are hired. “I would gladly take [a drug test] because I’m not taking any drugs,” sophomore Edin Sehic said.

A student in the high school has had trouble with drug testing before. The anonymous student applied for a job that requires its employees to be drug free. “I knew that they did a drug test so I made sure I was clean like three weeks before hand so it would get out of my system,” the student said.

After two weeks, the employer had not called back. “My friend, was like ‘hey, just do it again,’ and I was like ‘Ok,’ and the next day [the place] calls,” the student said. After doing the interview the student was given the option of doing the drug test then or waiting until later.

The student chose to wait in order to come up with a plan on how to pass the drug test. “Me, being a lovely [sibling], I’m like ‘Hey younger brother, my friends and I, because we are rad, are doing a science experiment to see if [urine] turns green,’”the student said. “He believed it and I told him, ‘hey yours didn’t turn green,’ and he was like ‘oh that sucks.’”

The student then found out what was needed for their sibling’s urine sample to qualify as a good sample. After finding out what qualified the urine sample as good the student then came up with a way to transport the urine and keep it between 95 and 98 degrees.

The student then used their sibling’s urine sample in their drug test and passed.“I have been working there ever since,” the student said. The student no longer smokes and would take a drug test if their parent asked them to.