Bad Decision in Blink of an Eye : * Schools Unwisely OK Unreliable Drug Test

Parents who are worried about their children getting involved with drugs need all the help they can get. But a do-it-yourself eye test contained in a drug-testing kit endorsed by the Capistrano Unified School District is not the way to go.

So many questions have been raised about the accuracy of the eye test--especially when administered by parents with no experience and minimal training--that the test cannot be seen as reliable. Its results may lead some parents to believe that their children have taken drugs, or are drug-free, when the opposite may be true.

Even if the eye test were foolproof, it could too easily become gadgetry that substitutes for real parental supervision. At worst, it could alienate children from their parents when they most need their care.

The eye test is part of the Winners Program kit marketed by Athletes for a Strong America of Mission Viejo. The kits, costing $49, include a videotape and other materials about drug use. These also give instructions on how to use a penlight--also included in the kit--to conduct an eye test. The penlight is shined into children’s eyes to see how their pupils react. It’s a procedure similar to that used by some law enforcement officers in conjunction with motor skill and other tests to determine if motorists are under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

The test’s proponents, including Dr. Forrest Tennant, a former drug adviser to the National Football League who developed the test for home use, defended the eye test as accurate. Tennant said the test was an “index of suspicion” to be followed by a blood or urine test. But even if the test isn’t accurate, Tennant said, it is a deterrent to a child’s use of drugs.

It may be true that the threat of an eye test administered by a parent could offer some children an excuse to stand up to peer pressure to take drugs. But even that dubious deterrent has to be balanced against the harmful confusion that an inaccurate test could cause when a child “flunks” an eye test for some reason other than drug use.

The eye test has been dismissed by a variety of prominent doctors and researchers, including one who said parents would be better off flipping a coin. Five faculty members at the University of Iowa found the test “useless” because pupil size varies according to lighting and changes in a child’s emotions and activities.

In 1989, a federal judge in Colorado found that the test, used by the University of Colorado at Boulder on 3,000 to 4,000 intercollegiate athletes, had been incorrect 97% to 98.5% of the time. The judge ordered the tests discontinued.

The Capistrano Unified School District--the first one to sanction the eye test by recommending the drug kit--should also be the first to withdraw that approval.

Surely there are better ways for parents to confront the issue of drug abuse.