Drug Testing for Welfare Recipients Is Stupid
By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
This is one of the dumbest things I've heard recently coming out of state legislatures, forcing thinking people to pose the question: And what is your point?
States consider drug tests for welfare recipients
By TOM BREEN, Associated Press Writer Thu Mar 26, 9:28 am ET
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Want government assistance? Just say no to drugs.
Lawmakers in at least eight states want recipients of food stamps, unemployment benefits or welfare to submit to random drug testing.
The effort comes as more Americans turn to these safety nets to ride out the recession. Poverty and civil liberties advocates fear the strategy could backfire, discouraging some people from seeking financial aid and making already desperate situations worse.
Those in favor of the drug tests say they are motivated out of a concern for their constituents' health and ability to put themselves on more solid financial footing once the economy rebounds. But proponents concede they also want to send a message: you don't get something for nothing.
"Nobody's being forced into these assistance programs," said Craig Blair, a Republican in the West Virginia Legislature who has created a Web site — notwithmytaxdollars.com — that bears a bobble-headed likeness of himself advocating this position. "If so many jobs require random drug tests these days, why not these benefits?"
Uh, right. And if they test positive—then what? Throw functioning drug addicts, who aren't committing crimes against anyone but their own bodies, in jail? It's a different story with violent criminals, but alcoholics and low-scale drug users? There's no room! Our jails are already overflowing.
Everyone knows drug addicts have to "hit bottom" before they reform. Far as I'm concerned, living on welfare is already "hitting bottom," and forcing them into homeless shelters isn't going to get them any closer to recovery. Besides, there aren't enough spaces in cheap or free recovery programs. So the point of this was, what?
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Reader Comments
No Big Deal
As long as there are people like me, willing to take drug tests to work in an already dangerous industry and give up half of OUR hard-earned income to feed these people's drug habits.. Everyone should turn out just fine, right?
WELFARE IS KILLING MY BROTHER I cant stop them
WELFARE IS KILLING MY BROTHER AND FORCING ME TO PAY FOR IT.
My brother has a crappy work history had it been checked they would have found that if he wasnt fired he was willingly quitting. He smoked dope and hated paying child support. He was Healthy the day he told his boss to Eff off to get fired and he was healthy when he went down to welfare and told them that he was out of work for more then 12 months and he qualified oh yeah and that he was homeless to collect cash. I turned him in for his lies but there are no penalties they simply dont give it to you until you can prove that its true. The medical card upgraded his pot smoking habit that he only did when he could afford to smoke it to narcotic perscription drugs which his doctor continues to perscribe even though I informed his doctor that he was steeling other peoples drugs with out care an he had a problem. I called welfare WHO PAYS FOR HIS DRUGS AND WHEN HE OVERDOSES AND PROTECTS HIM FROM PAYING CHILD SUPPORT. the first five doctors sent him to a shrink because he was trying to get them to operate and give him more narcotics. Welfare wont look at what Rochester Mayo Clinics results were he just needs a note even if he writes one for imself because they dont check to see in they are being conned and as long as he has a note that states he cant work he gets welfare. Now that he can abuse drugs every day and party. He has completly removed himself from his daughters and they are devistated.
Very weak argument against a great proposal.
Bonnie,
Have you ever lived in an area with drug users? (Note, I am referring to hardcore drugs.. I don't consider Marijuana to be any harder a drug than having a couple beers. Actually, it's probably less harmful than that, but I digress...) When I moved to the Chicago area to take a job out of college, I lived in a pretty rough neighborhood for a while just outside of Englewood. I had multiple neighbors who were were on every kind of financial assistance they could find: The "Link" card (food stamps in debit card form), welfare, scamming church assistance programs claiming they had a baby at home to feed... it was disgusting. Then they would turn around and try to "sell" the Link Card money to people for cash so that they could buy heroin. They even came by and asked if we would panhandle with them!
While this is definitely not the way of all welfare recipients, it is a way of life for some. I fully support assistance programs for those who need it; I am not some heartless conservative trying to cut back on it entirely. However, if there is a way to put an end to some of these users wasting money from the system, I'm all for it. It doesn't feel good to live in the highest-taxed city in America and watch your tax dollars disappear one by one into the ever-collapsing veins of a shitty neighbor(s).
http://www.roguemammoth.com
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