With the advent of accurate drug testing over the past two decades, it has only become natural for an "over the counter" variety to appear in the form of home drug testing kits. While once reserved for commercial ventures and huge corporations, the average person now has at his or her disposal, the same means of detection once available only to commercial laboratories. Many of the home kits available are the same ones used by corporations and police departments around the world, so you can be certain of accurate results if you buy the right kit.

There are two varieties of home drug testing kits; those that sample hair and those that sample urine. Urine tests can typically trace back only a week or so, but traces of drugs remain in the hair as long as the hair was grown when the drugs were consumed. Hair tests can be used to override a urine test that can no longer be redone due to time lapse. That makes hair tests more accurate if time has passed, or if an accusation is made of an incident several months previously. The hair can determine whether or not the teen was using drugs at a point of time that could not be proven or disproven through a urine test.

Testing in one’s home is completely confidential, so if a parent suspects teen drug use, a home drug testing kit can be used with no outside parties involved. Additionally, the mere presence of a drug testing kit in the bathroom can provide the impetus for teens to avoid using drugs or succumbing to peer pressure to try them in the first place. The mere presence of the kit can be a powerful deterrent to a teen that might otherwise sneak occasional use, if he or she feels they could be tested at any time.

Home drug testing can also be done by parents of teenage athletes to ensure that they are not violating school drug policies. This can be an easier way to ensure that the child is refraining from using drugs or steroids, rather than having to use expensive laboratories, and the schools themselves can even use these home drug testing kits themselves to cut down on expenses if they suspect a student is using drugs in violation of their policies. If the results come back positive, then the student can opt for a commercial test to attempt to disprove the school’s test, but in all likelihood, the findings will be the same, as most of these kits are of the same type and quality as those used commercially.

These home drug testing kits are much more convenient and inexpensive than commercial tests, much like home pregnancy tests, and allow a greater degree of privacy and less embarrassment than going to a laboratory for a public test. Privacy is a great concern to many, and these home tests allow the greatest amount of privacy to the individual, while keeping the cost to a minimum.