HOUSTON – You already know what illegal drugs like cocaine, opioids and marijuana look like, but have you seen the sneaky, new devices kids are using to hide drugs from their parents?
These are inexpensive, stash devices marketed specifically to help your kids hide illegal drugs inside your home.
Everything from fake bottles of soda pop, to a hollowed-out lint brush, to a fake watch.
Drug addiction experts say they’re cheap and easy to buy online and are quickly becoming more and more popular.
“If your kids are using drugs, they are probably hiding them and these devices, pretty much all of them, you can buy on Amazon and other sites,” said Melissa, an employee at the Recovery Center.
So, would you be able to find these devices in your kid’s bedroom?
To find out, KPRC 2 Investigates is putting two real-life moms, Sabrina Miskelly and Brett Harper, to the test.
Right away, KPRC 2 reporter Bill Spencer started planting fake, illegal drugs all over Sabrina’s two teenage son’s bedrooms.
First up, what looks like a tiny package of Kleenex tissues has a hidden compartment where you can hide pills or powders.
Next, Spencer takes what looks like an ordinary canister of Comet cleanser, which is a clever stash device that can hold an entire bag of marijuana, and places the pot in the hollowed-out container.
How about a bottle of Dasani water that looks exactly like the real thing, even has water in it that you can shake, but you can unscrew the top portion of the bottle and there is a secret hiding space perfect for pills, powder or whatever you want.
In fact, Spencer planted 10 stash devices all over Sabrina’s son’s bedrooms and sent Sabrina in to try and find them.
At first, Sabrina looked confident as she picked up just about everything in the room.
She handled the chrome water bottle that has drugs hidden in the bottom, but in the end missed it entirely.
”This looks like a cheap battery. It’s probably real though,” Sabrina says, as she misses the next stash device, a hollowed-out battery that looks like the real thing.
The thing is, there is a bunch of powder hidden inside.
In fact, after a long search, Sabrina finds only one of the 10 stash devices that are scattered between her two son’s rooms.
Remember the metal bottle?
Spencer said he simply unscrewed the bottom portion of the bottle and pulled out the bag of marijuana.
“Wow, I never would have known you could do that. That is wild,” Sabrina said.
Now, time for mom number two, Brett Harper, who lives in Meyerland and has 10 children, including three teenagers.
Spencer asks her, “Brett if I were to hide illegal drugs in your children’s rooms do you think you could find them?”
“You bet I do,” Brett says, “I can find them.”
Once again, Spencer hid 10 different items throughout the mother’s three teenagers’ rooms and then let her go to work.
To my surprise, right out of the gate, Brett finds the package of fake Kleenex tissue and the pills inside.
“Ha, ha, ha, drugs, I found the drugs,” Brett says, as she finds a fake hair scrunchie filled with drugs.
In all, Brett found four of the 10 stash devices that were placed in her children’s rooms, but still missed six others.
She missed the hollowed-out hairbrush with marijuana inside, the Comet cleanser stash, and a fake lint roller.
“I cannot believe this. Those sneaky little devils to come up with stuff like this,” Brett says of the drug stash devices.
This turned into a sneaky, but powerful lesson for all parents on what to look for if they suspect their kids are hiding drugs right under their noses.
Drug addiction experts say the best advice they have for parents who would go looking for these hidden stash devices is to look for items that seem completely out of place in the child’s room.
For example, a bottle of soda pop that they would never drink, a bottle of girl’s shampoo and a girl’s hair brush that’s sitting in your son’s bathroom, a bottle or can of bathroom cleaner in your kids’ bathroom when they never clean anything etc.