Also, more and more employers require a drug test. SO... if you get government assistance while you are unemployed, how can you ever get off welfare and find work if you do drugs?
Duhh
good article. makes some fair and valid points.
i would like to see the overall standards for welfare tightened. i think that would have far more savings and benefits. (as the GOP congress did under Clinton.)
this would save little, have little positive effect, and bad unintended consequences.
will they stop using drugs? no. absolutely not.
so, if you take away their welfare, what will they do?
begin mugging and stealing from honest citizens, if they are not already.
(which is one of the MANY good reasons why i support legalization. make drugs cheap, so they won’t steal from functional citizens.)
also, in MANY cases, there might be a mother on drugs, and this money actually does help her children.
this will not accomplish anything except saving a small amount of tax money, which will be used up 10 fold in extra costs in police and family services.
Yeh right....then we will additionally foot the bill for rehab....which means more free stuff...They even cook the meals for you...clean bedding....friendly atmosphere with your best buds...Very good idea!! S/
How about angus steak testing?
and to me, the biggest benefit from ending the war on drugs, is it will end the drug war in Mexico.
(if you remove the profit, then the cartels will go away.
all that death and violence, is simply about making money.)
and, even more important, Islamists, like the Taliban, get major funding, from our drug war ! take away the profit, and they get nothing to support themselves.
That’s Racist
(SARC)
Yes. All members of congress should be tested on at least a quarterly basis.
Let’s take TSA out of the airports and have them screen potential welfare recipients. The gadget above is a skin test, not a urine or breath test, and would mean a multimillion dollar production contract. Buy stuff- employ TSA- harass people, sounds like a natural for FedGov.
Shouldn't people be testing for drugs & alcohol when people apply for or renew a drivers license? Especially alcohol, the major killer on our highways. Perhaps license applicants can be questioned closely about their drinking & drug habits. Their license will be issued depending on the testing & the questioning.
And how can we be giving welfare checks & tax refunds to obviously obese people? They'll just spend it on twinkies. These folks are costing gov’t & society a bundle of cash in medical costs. Medicare & Medicaid recipients can be tested by their doctors when they receive treatment. No pass, no heart medicine.
Later on, the program can be expanded to include tests for cholesterol, sugar, & excessive weight gain.
Drug testing welfare applicants doesn’t seem to be cost effective. Interesting results from the first 6 weeks.
From Tampa Bay Online:
Welfare drug-testing yields 2 percent positive results
Since the state began testing welfare applicants for drugs in July, about 2 percent have tested positive, preliminary data shows.
Ninety-six percent proved to be drug free — leaving the state on the hook to reimburse the cost of their tests.
The initiative may save the state a few dollars anyway, bearing out one of Gov. Rick Scott’s arguments for implementing it. But the low test fail-rate undercuts another of his arguments: that people on welfare are more likely to use drugs.
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Over 12 months, the money saved on all rejected applicants would add up to $40,800 to $60,000 for a program that state analysts have predicted will cost $178 million this fiscal year.
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More than once, Scott has said publicly that people on welfare use drugs at a higher rate than the general population. The 2 percent test fail rate seen by DCF, however, does not bear that out.