Colorado Springs Gazette Article - Guardian Angel Test Kits

Publication: The Gazette; Date: Mar 23, 2005; Section: Business; Page Number: 43

Customers first at drug testing firm Web site stocked with info

By JIM BAINBRIDGE THE GAZETTE

After six years of selling the Home Drug Testing Kit online, Colorado Springs resident Amanda Beihl has come to realize that the success of her business depends on a concept too often foreign to the Internet — customer service.

Launch a Google search for “drug testing kits” and you get 76,600 hits, the sort of competition that’s bound to get any merchant’s attention. Choosing to emphasize service was the practical response that best fit Beihl’s sense of how things ought to be done.

She saw competitors who didn’t include specimen cups or even basic instructions and companies who were unavailable for questions once the product was delivered.

“People can go online and get (kits) inexpensively at a lot of sites, but they don’t always get what they need,” Beihl said.

“A big part of what we do is educational. We provide a pamphlet through the ‘Parents. The Anti-Drug’ organization with each order and we have a lot of material on our Web site.

“We’ve found people stay online for a long time to read and reread what’s there.”

Beihl also responds to e-mail and phone calls, mostly from parents trying to make sure their kids are not using drugs, including one call Tuesday from a mother who wanted to know if it was possible for her child to manipu- late the test and mask drug use.

The majority of sales out of Beihl’s Union Boulevard office are to parents and small businesses.

“Most parents are starting from square one,” Beihl said, “from noticing a drop in grades, a change in behavior, a change in friends. A lot of these parents were not drug users when they were younger, and they just don’t know a lot about it.

“They’re hungry for information.”

The kits test for methamphetamine (speed), cocaine, opiates (morphine, heroin), THC (marijuana) and PCP.

A basic single-substance kit costs $3 and ranges upward from there to the five-substance test kit at $7. From the moment the testing card is dipped into the urine sample, it takes 3 to 5 minutes to get results.

A year ago Beihl purchased rights to the Guardian Angel Personal Alcohol Test in a California bankruptcy proceeding, adding it to her online inventory along with the Home Drug Testing Kit and another for tobacco testing.

The alcohol test, which involves placing a test strip on the subject’s tongue to determine his level of inebriation, has most often been purchased by police departments for distribution at bars and by colleges.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0126 or bainbird@gazette.com

SPEAKUP
Residents offer their views about local events.

Would you object to your parents making you take a home drug testing kit?
MANUEL ADAME, 15, Garden Ranch “No, because I don’t do drugs. So I wouldn’t be worried about it. It would make me feel . . . my parents are concerned about what I do and about my future.”	JORDAN HOYLE, 13, Widefield “No, because I know I haven’t done drugs. So it wouldn’t bother me. It would just let them know I haven’t done anything.”
NIKO HOWLING, 16, Fountain “I would not. Mostly the reason is that it (an objection) would make them think you are taking drugs. The purpose is to get them to think you aren’t taking drugs, so you’d have to take it. But it would make me feel that my parents have a lack of trust in me. It would make me feel that it is my fault for putting them in that position, like staying out all night or something.”	AMBER HORTON, 15, Widefield “No, because I don’t do drugs. To me, it wouldn’t be a big deal. To someone who does, it might. It’d make me a little upset that they didn’t trust me, but it would make me realize they just want to make sure I’m clean.”

Would you use a home drug kit with your teen, and how would you pose the request?
CRAIG JOHNSON, 37, Garden Ranch “If I suspected they were on drugs, I would. I’d just be straightforward. I’d say, ‘Well, we noticed your behavior has been changing, and I’d appreciate it if you would take this test to see where we stand and maybe get some help if we need it.’”	JULIE TRUJILLO, 30, Cimarron Hills “I’d have to talk to them beforehand about drug use. If I suspected it, I would definitely use it. I wouldn’t ask them; I would tell them, ‘This is what is going to happen next.’”
ANGELA HOYLE, 39, Widefield “I guess if you suspected your child was using drugs, you’d tell them why it’s bad to use drugs and say, ‘Here, we have this home drug test kit.’ I always try to be open with my child. You could discuss this with them.”	TROY HOWLING, 56, Fountain “I have three teenagers at home. This would not be a problem for me. If I suspected something there wouldn’t be a request; it would be, ‘Go in the bathroom and do this and don’t come out until it’s done.’ If my child were innocent, then he wouldn’t have a problem with it either.”