For years, parents who were worried about a child's drug and alcohol use had to rely on old-fashioned tactics: gut feelings, a careful look at their child's face after a weekend party, a quick sniff test with the good-night hug.

Today, thanks to the growth in cheap, accessible test kits, parents can quickly screen their children for drug and alcohol use.

"Tests are a good thing to have in the medicine chest when you're having the talk about drugs," said Jon Daily, the clinical director of Recovery Happens Counseling Services, which has offices in Davis and Fair Oaks.

Drug and alcohol counselors support the trend. So does a New York lawmaker, Assemblyman Joseph Saladino, who has introduced a bill in the Empire State that would require the parents of high school students to give their kids annual drug tests.

A few local police departments, including the one in Davis, provide interested parents with low-cost kits to test their kids at home.

"We offer the drug testing kits as a tool for parents to use, and provide them at cost," said Trease Petersen, youth intervention specialist with the Davis Police Department, who said the department has sold 2,500 test kits since 2008. "Instead of seeing it as an invasion of privacy, kids who have nothing to hide, hide nothing."

It's also possible to buy the kits at chain stores such as Walmart and Target or to order them online. (For information on making such purchases, visit www.recoveryhappens.com.)

There is a growing market for drug tests, with U.S. sales expected to reach $2 billion in 2014, according to the BCC Research market research firm. Some of that is fueled by parents who want a definitive word on the very scary prospect of substance abuse.

Marijuana is now the drug of choice for kids. High-intensity pot from marijuana dispensaries, Daily said, is cheap and relatively easy to obtain.

"Typically, when we get a new client, the kid has been using two years longer than the parent realizes," Daily said.

Those kinds of stories are scary for parents to hear – which makes an objective test kit appealing to moms and dads.

Home drug tests typically require a random urine test that screens for the presence of a range of drugs, including marijuana, but also ecstasy, opiates and methamphetamine. There are tests that screen for drugs such as Valium, Xanax and Oxycontin, and digital Breathalyzers that screen for alcohol.

Substance abuse experts underscore the need for random tests so kids can't swap a friend's urine for their own. Drug screens typically show evidence for most drugs within three days of ingestion, up to 10 days for marijuana. Breathalyzers show alcohol use that has occurred in the previous six to eight hours, depending on how much alcohol was consumed.

The American Academy of Pediatrics opposes testing adolescents for drugs "without their knowledge and consent." In a policy statement, the doctors said that "more adolescent-specific substance abuse treatment resources are needed to ensure that testing leads to early rehabilitation rather than punitive measures only."

The Sacramento Police Department does not participate in providing home drug tests to parents.

"I don't know if drug tests are the answer," said Sacramento Police Department Sgt. Norm Leong. "If your child is on drugs, there probably should be some symptoms like grade changes or behavioral symptoms you are able to see. I think it's more about forming communications and a relationship with your children and being open and candid with them about the effects of drugs, and where they can lead. That is probably more important than actually knowing they're on drugs."

Some parents test their kids as a matter of course, once they become teenagers and are spending more time outside of the family home or when they begin to drive.

"If you do introduce it as a parenting tool, if it became the norm that's what parents do, it would be real successful," said Sheila Walker, a drug and alcohol counselor with New Directions Counseling Associates in Fair Oaks.

"When kids are not using, they don't have a problem proving they're not using," said Dawn DiRaimondo, a Sacramento psychologist specializing in adolescent and family therapy. "When kids are using, they throw out, 'You don't trust me' – which is often a smokescreen."

Petersen said random drug testing is recommended as part of the curriculum for the Parent Project, a class developed by Los Angeles police and counselors that she has helped present to about 500 local parents in the past five years.

Michael Riera, a nationally known expert on adolescent parenting and author of "A Field Guide to the American Teenager," said the trust issue is essential to both parents and teens as they navigate their way through the difficult transition between childhood and independence.

"The most important tool a parent has with his or her child is their relationship, and that relationship is more important than whether the child is experimenting or not," he said.

Riera, who is the parent of a teen, said he would support drug testing under limited circumstances for a kid who has been caught with drugs, and he would advocate a clear statement about how the teen violated the parent's rules and a definitive time frame about how long random testing will occur.

"They get to earn your trust back," said Riera. "And if they continue to use, then that indicates they're in over their heads and need a professional."

When parents do turn to a substance abuse counselor, they are likely to find that continued random drug testing of their teens is a required part of the recovery process.

"What we say is 'We will help your child. We will do our part, but you have to do your part and drug-test them and give them consequences if they refuse," said Walker.

In that context, drug testing allows counselors the opportunity to talk to a sober client and gives teens who are even casual drug and alcohol users a reason to stay clean – even if their friends are still partying.

"They can say 'No, I am being tested by my parents,' and a lot of the time, that will back off the peer pressure," said Petersen.

She points to a 2007 editorial in the Davis High School student-run newspaper endorsing home drug testing as evidence that kids can – and do – support such intervention if parents decide that it's necessary.

"Just because your kid turns 13 or 14 doesn't mean they should be drug-tested," added Daily. "But maybe if they're starting to hang out more and more with kids who do use drugs, maybe it's time."

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