Parents “lose their children” because of misinterpreted drug tests

As the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) can reveal, children are at risk of being unfairly removed from their parents’ custody by the family courts due to misinterpretation of drug tests.

Life-changing decisions about whether a child should be placed in the care of a local authority can sometimes depend on the results of hair strand tests designed to show whether a parent has consumed drugs or excessive alcohol.

But the process used to interpret the results can be misleading and risks racial bias, according to activists and experts.

Paul Hunter, a leading expert in the field of drug testing, told TBIJ that “non-drug users are losing their children” because hair strand test results were misreported.

Hair strand testing has been used since the 1990s and is now common practice in family courts. When a person uses a drug such as cocaine, the presence of the drug in the bloodstream causes traces of it to be absorbed into hair growth. What is crucial, however, is that the amounts of drugs present in the hair, when viewed in isolation, cannot be equated with drug use.

Data collected over the past 30 years by hundreds of researchers shows that numerous factors such as race, hair color, pregnancy and UV radiation can affect the amount of a drug absorbed in a hair sample, as can the use of certain hair products . Results may even vary between individual hairs from the same person when collected from a different part of the head.

Significant amounts of a drug can be found in a person’s hair because they share living space with drug users. Low or no concentrations of a drug can now be detected in hair taken from a regular consumer, for example if it has been dyed or treated.

The issue of misreporting test results in court is the subject of an open letter sent to the Family Division of the Supreme Court on Tuesday. The letter, signed by lawyers, academics and activists, calls for urgent reform of the way results are presented as evidence.

Sir Andrew McFarlane, president of the Family Division of England and Wales, told TBIJ: “Concerns about the accuracy and interpretation of drug testing are taken very seriously.” He said he had referred the matter to the Family Justice Council “for urgent consideration.”