CALAIS – Attention, parents: In what may be a first for Maine, local police want to help you figure out in the privacy of your own home whether your children are consuming drugs.

Police Chief Michael Milburn said this week that his department will offer drug-testing urine kits to parents for $6 apiece – a bargain since they can retail for as much $30.

No questions will be asked of anyone who buys a kit, the chief said.

“I consider this a preventative measure against the use of illegal drugs, and I encourage and I hope that parents will take advantage of it,” Milburn said.

The money to buy the kits came from the annual Calais Police Department Bowl Down Drugs program. Each year local teams made up of municipal officials and businesspeople spend a Sunday in January bowling. Proceeds are donated to the police. This year the teams raised nearly $2,800.

The chief said that the $6 fee would help replenish the supply of kits. No taxpayer money is involved, he said.

The kits are simple to use. A person provides a urine specimen. A strip is dipped into the urine specimen. Each strip reacts distinctively to various chemicals: marijuana, amphetamines, methamphetamines, opiates and cocaine. If drugs are in the person’s system, the strips react positively.

Each plastic bottle has a temperature gauge in case a child might try to substitute a sample.

In Calais, the chief said, the kits will be available to parents throughout eastern Washington County. He said parents who buy them wouldn’t have to fear that police would question them. They can buy the test kits from a police dispatcher.

Milburn said he believes this is the first such program in the state.

Bangor Deputy Police Chief Peter Arno said his department does not have a similar program. Arno called Milburn’s efforts a public service. “This has the potential to get the ball rolling for other police departments,” he said.

Police officials from Waterville to Fort Kent also said they did not have a similar program.

Kim Johnson of the state Office of Substance Abuse said she believes it’s a first. “I think that for parents that are wondering about what’s going on with their kid, this is an option that should be available,” she said. “They can get some confirmation and know what they have to deal with.”

Milburn said he thinks there are “a lot of parents who want to know if their child is using illegal drugs.”

If the test is positive and parents want to speak with police, they can.

“We will not take names of individuals who come in and purchase these,” he said. “We can offer them assistance, we can offer them advice, but what they do is entirely up to them.”