'Prove It' must prove it to Commission

Green MP Nandor Tanczos has laid a complaint with the Commerce Commission against the New Zealand distributors of home drug-testing kit, DrugCheck5, alleging it has made false claims about the product.

Prove It, which is marketing the kits to parents of teenagers, claims the product is 100 per cent accurate on its website, www.proveit.co.nz. Nandor has alleged under Section 13A of the Fair Trading Act that Prove It are misrepresenting goods to be of a particular quality.

"These claims are inaccurate, misleading and dangerous," said the Green Party Youth Affairs spokesperson.

"This isn't just nit-picking. Parents might rely on these tests to punish their children for something they haven't done.

"To claim a drug test is 100 per cent accurate is just wrong. Even if the tests were 99 per cent accurate, that is still one family out of 100 that may be badly damaged as a result of a false positive reading."

Nandor said he was given advice by the Institute of Environmental Science and Research, refuting the claim of 100 per cent accuracy. He said similar tests to DrugCheck5, which use immunoassay technology, are proven to produce false positives four to 34 per cent of the time.

He questions where Nicola Doherty, the distributor of the test in New Zealand, has sourced her information.

"She said on National Radio this morning that the claims were accurate because the American distributors told her so. That is not an acceptable reason in my view.

"This is marketing that plays on the genuine fears many parent have about their children. It is totally irresponsible considering the damage these claims could potentially do to families."

"That is not to mention to damage to families from forcing young people to pee in a bottle in front of parents who don't trust them"

Nandor said the only test which complies with the Australian and New Zealand standards, AS/NZS 4308:2001 'Procedures for the collection, detection and quantitation of drugs of abuse in urine', is a two-step process which only the ESR conducts in this country.

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