Mandatory Drug Testing For Welfare Recipients

a.i) Government assistance, or welfare, is a very broad term. There are many different welfare programs available in the United States e.g., food stamps, cash assistance, and government housing. Currently there is mass debate, in courtrooms across the U.S., regarding the legality and morality of pre-assistance drug testing. This report is intended to familiarize the reader with the history of welfare reform; the histories of drug testing in regards to assistance eligibility; and persuade the audience to vote yes for mandatory pre-assistance drug testing.

The process of drug testing individuals who are applying or receiving welfare benefits has recently become the focus of a widely spread controversy. Florida, the first state to pass the law, now requires all individuals applying for public assistance to undergo drug testing. The state of Kentucky, among others, have considered following this trend. State lawmakers hope to prevent the squandering of taxpayer dollars on drugs by proposing similar guidelines. Alabama’s states representative Kerry Rich clearly affirmed his state’s position on the matter, “I don’t think the taxpayers should have to help fund somebody’s drug habit” (qtd. in Time).

Over the past few years, there has been a lot of controversy over whether or not those who test positive for drugs should be able to receive welfare. It was an argument that flooded social media, arguments filling comments with opinions. It is a subject that continues to be discussed within our peer groups, our communities, and our states. This paper will discuss the opinions of individual’s within the country, the beneficial factors of drug testing welfare recipients as well as the unbeneficial factors, as well as who decides if drug testing welfare recipients goes into effect or not.

In today’s America, government aid is highly depended on. The US government has spent $498 billion dollars this year on welfare alone. The state of Tennessee has an average of 250,000 residents on welfare and has $3 billion dollars this year alone. To help cut costs and help tax payers, 36 states, including Tennessee, have proposed a bill to drug test all welfare recipients. Since the beginning of the year, the welfare rate has jumped 7 percent while at the same time, the welfare funds are drying up. Tennessee funds have dropped 17.5 percent, which comes out to be about $215.3 million dollars this year. State lawmakers have proposed that if drug users on welfare are

To test or not to test has been has been the question at hand for many states that are dealing with whether or not to pass the law that welfare recipients should or should not be drug tested in order to receive assistance from the government. Florida was the first state to mandate the law in 2011 and thereafter twenty four other states in the last year have also passed this law with our own state of Oklahoma being one of them. Although alcohol is legal it is abused far more than marijuana or hard core drugs, According to the 1996 study by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism the differences between the proportion of welfare and non-welfare recipients using illegal drugs are statistically insignificant. Although some states have decided to pass the law for welfare recipients in order receive government assistance, I believe it’s ineffective to drug test these welfare recipients in order to receive their benefits. Welfare in the United States commonly refers to the federal government welfare programs that have been put in place to assist the unemployed or underemployed. Help is extended to the poor through a variety of government welfare programs that include the Women, Infants, and Children Program which is referred to as WIC, Medicaid, and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families commonly known as TANF and Aid to Families with Dependent Children.

This quote is taken from Candice Player; in it, she states that 22% of welfare recipients who got assistance reported the use of illicit drugs in one year, compared to thirteen percent of people who did not get aid. “Jayakody and colleagues found that 21% of welfare recipients who received cash assistance reported use of an illegal drug during the past year, compared to 13% of non-recipients” (Player). The statistical information provided by Player showcases how many recipients cheat the welfare system; if drug testing were allowed in all states, that percent would lower all the way to zero. In this next quote, Player shows an example of another year that welfare recipients used illegal drugs while still receiving benefits, as much as ten percent that year. “Excluding marijuana, about 10% of welfare recipients reported use of some other illegal drug during the past year, compared to 7% of non-recipients” (Player). The information is of all the people taking the illegal drugs, excluding marijuana; it demonstrates that if the people can get away with it, they will continue to do so until they are forcefully stopped, in this case by drug screenings. Player goes on to say that in the

As I worked on the controversial idea of drug testing welfare recipients, the most important thing I leaned is that Kline and colleagues surveyed substance use among a representative sample of welfare recipients in New Jersey. They found that 12 percent admitted that they used cocaine, but 25 percent tested positive for cocaine use based on hair sample analyses. Now that I know that, I can better understand the larger issue that the drug epidemic is monumental in the United States, and unfortunately we can not simply take peoples word on if they are using or

109,631,000 Americans receive benefits from one or more federal funded programs. Throughout this project, I will be talking about different subjects related to government assistance. I will be referring to the new subject being recently talked about here in Wisconsin, drug testing welfare recipients. I also will be talking about the good and bad in government assistance, that relates back to government assistance abuse. When talking about abuse in government assistance, additionally will be talking about better monitoring in certain situations. Many thoughts go through everyday taxpayers on why they should be the ones paying for others to get help, especially when individuals do not have an idea about getting a job to get back on their feet.

Why do people that are working have to pass a drug test while those on welfare do not? This is the question that is causing a lot of debate across the country and throughout congress. Many working class Americans are outraged at the current welfare policies and believe something needs to change. There are always going to be people on government assistance who are abusing the system and who are using drugs while not working. Something needs to change so we can actually help families who need assistance, not those who are abusing drugs and the system. Therefor, I believe that states should require drug testing of all individuals on welfare since those who are supporting them have to pass a drug test.

Since the early War on Drugs and the welfare reform of the 1990s, those who receive public benefits have been under the microscope of drug warriors and policy makers. Those who are proponents of drug testing say that substance abuse and addiction can interfere with the ability to obtain or maintain jobs. Drug testing can help welfare recipients prepare for the job market by getting them clean and ready for the job application process (Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), 2011). Drug use and abuse can also contribute to child abuse and neglect (Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), 2013). Testing welfare recipients can also be cost effective, as it would prevent the misuse of public funds for the purchase

This argument says the issue of poverty can be best aided by weeding-out drug abusers, since drug users should be required to follow the welfare laws, which include abstinence from any illegal drug. One fallacy and weakness found in the proponents research is the fact that although the Census Bureau reports over 35 million Americans live in poverty, the Census Bureau actually measures the number of people living in poverty before taking into account the effect of many government welfare programs like food stamps and government housing (Rector). Thus, the actual number of those living in 'true' poverty is not as staggering as proponents perceive it to be. Furthermore, although the proponents claim their policy would save the state significant amounts of money, Judge Scriven of the Florida precedent pointed out that "the State [Florida] has not shown by competent evidence that any TANF funds would be saved by instituting a drug testing program" (Berrebi). that many would-be applicants may reject TANF aid because of the mandatory drug tests, leaving possible cases of children getting neglected by the system by which parents do not receive the financial support they may need for safety and overall well-being. This could be considered an unintended consequence, but is nonetheless a weakness in the proponents'

Meth, marijuana, cocaine, and heroin are among the top drugs that many people use and utilized as money making tactics. As we all know, drugs are found and they are heavily used in low income areas, not only do they pose a significant effect on one’s health but they pose a significant effect on our economy. Generally it is perceived that those who reside in low income areas are the ones who resort to drugs, evidently they are. Likewise, they are also the ones who are utilizing government assistance programs. Some of these programs include; health care, child care, ebt benefits, and even housing assistance programs. So the big question is “Should people who receive government assistance undergo drug tests?”

Most people believe that drug testing welfare applicants and recipients is necessary and saves the government and taxpayers’ money. However, the majority do not know that drug testing cost the government more than it saves. If you better understand that the method of drug testing has shown to be an extremely flawed method for tracking down abusers, that it does not

Drug use is so rampant that everyone, no matter where they stand in society, could be using drugs without being suspected. The poor should not be exempted from this simply because they are poor and are already vulnerable. The reason why they need to be drug tested is so that those who really need state aid would get the help they need while those who would only spend the money on drugs would be eliminated from the list. If a person would use drugs, he or she can’t make honest taxpayers to pay for his or her vice. Furthermore, those who truly need the aid will be identified and be given priority.

d. Kalynn Amundson spoke about the topic of drug testing welfare recipients from its very beginning. She gave an insight into the topic from a sociological standpoint. She began by stating, “The worthiness of welfare recipients has long been questioned. However, their stereotypic depictions have changed throughout the decades.” (Amundson, 2015)