Drug Testing Welfare

This proposal points out how Texas should adopt drug testing policy for welfare recipients. We researched the state of Oklahoma, its efforts to improve its well-being, the decreased amount of welfare recipients received while increasing employment and the welfare program abilities. Texas is currently reopening this Bill and reconsidering this proposal for drug testing all welfare recipients. This will allow all of Texas welfare recipient’s access to different programs for personal improvement, job opportunists and economic growth.

In this article, author William Judge states that United States senator Orrin Hatch proposed an amendment to a jobs bill that also included a requirement for states to drug test those receiving temporary government assistance. The proposal received a great amount of backlash because it failed to include a defined plan to treat the recipients that test positive for substance abuse. Judge elaborates that, drug abuse is an issue in the welfare system but the proposed amendment does not provide enough structure to change current laws and implement drug testing. The lack of structure discourages taxpayers from supporting the bill be the unknown amount of testing and treatment services could be costly. Judge believes that drug testing would result in a constitutional legal battle that would outweigh the government’s interest in the drug abuse problem. Evaluation: This article is primarily informative and the author only offers his opinion on the subject after all of the facts have been introduced. Judge provides a perspective on both sides of the proposed amendment, while giving useful background information. He shows that he critically analyzed the amendment by elaborating

According to Pollack et al. (2002), “Substance abuse disorders among welfare recipients have attracted special concern among policymakers and the public” (pg. 24). It is not fair that some individuals are abusing illegal substances with American tax dollars. As a result, many policymakers and the general public are angry and demand a change in the system. There needs to be major changes that would require TANF recipients to submit to random drug testing, because scheduled drug testing can always be manipulated, and the government can save on money by cutting benefits to individuals who are abusing the

So what are the opinions of the individuals within the country? It’s a very controversial topic within the states, and people have very strong opinions regarding drug testing recipients of welfare. There aren’t many with a ‘middle’ opinion. They normally take one side of the argument. People who passionately believe anyone who receives welfare should be tested, and there are many people who swing the complete opposite way and essentially believe that it’s unconstitutional.

United States lawmakers face one of the most pressing issues of our time-welfare reform. New screening processes, often considered a direct violation of constitutional rights, have already been enacted in many states. Strong evidence exists, asserting that the practice of administering drug testing to welfare recipients will cost the U.S. taxpayers more money in the long run, stigmatize applicants and participants, and serve only the purpose of making the pharmaceutical companies more powerful. In order to protect the constitutional rights of potential welfare recipients, United States lawmakers should avoid further criminalizing the poor by submitting them to drug testing and/or a nationwide welfare registry.

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.

Finzel, Rochelle. "Drug Testing for Welfare Recipients and Public Assistance." NCSL. Ed. Rochelle Finzel. National Conference of State Legislatures, 27 July 2015. Web. 11 Feb. 2016.

Random drug testing welfare recipient has yet to become a law because the government is going back and forth over this issue and has yet to come to a conclusion if it is constitutional or not. There are issues about how to implement the process and how the American taxpayer are going to respond to this issue and to what end will it will come of it.

The purpose of this research paper is to find out other’s opinion on whether or not to drug test welfare recipients. Even tho there is several types of welfare programs not all of them give the welfare recipients money but there is several welfare benefits that will give welfare recipients money. And one major issue we have in today's society is some people get welfare just to help benefit their drug addiction. So we decided to survey twenty people nine female and eleven male age eighteen are over so we can get a variety of answers. Out of all twenty survey participants they all agreed to one major answer. For a welfare recipients to continue or to receive welfare he/she must be drug tested at least once a month to receive welfare if he/she fails to pass that drug test they should be taken off welfare.

The state of Tennessee began drug testing the applicants for that states welfare program. They notice that since they has started only one person out of eight hundred have tested positive. The month of July they had six people submitted a drug test. Just one tested positive out of the eight hundred who applied in that month. Four of them were turned down on the spot after they refused to participate in the drug screening. That I a 0.12 percent of those who took part in the screening. Compared to the 8 percent of the state’s residents who generally use illegal drug. Some many say that that test shows nothing, and that we are just stereotyping. However there are other states that have started doing the same thing. In Utah, just 12 people tested positive in a year of drug testing applicants. In Florida, 2 percent of applicants failed the tests in 2011 but the state has an 8 percent rate of illegal drug use. The Governor of Maine even wanted to take it one more step by trying to prove that welfare recipient in his state were using their benefits to buy drinks and cigarettes at bars, or even at strip clubs. However he turned up next to nothing. Eleven states have enacted drug screening or testing for welfare applicants.

In two thousand and twelve more than one-fifth of the U.S. population, or 52.2 million people, received some kind of means-tested public assistance every month. How many of those recipients do you think are using the assistance for illegal substances? Seven states already have welfare recipients drug testing to keep their benefits. These seven states include Utah, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Welfare drug testing is an officiant way to make sure the aid is being used properly. Although most people pass the drug tests, some also fail. Those failing people then lose their aide. Welfare money is not for drugs, it's for keeping up with your bills and families needs. Welfare recipients should have to be drug tested to continue getting their assistance.

While it is true that there are some jobs that do require a drug test prior to employment, the employees have a choice in the matter. If they do not wish to take a drug test, or if they fail the test, they can choose to find another job. However, by making it mandatory that welfare recipients be drug tested, they do not have a choice. If welfare recipients fail a drug test or refuse to take it, they don’t have the option to find another government to get the assistance that they need. Most welfare recipients are in need of public assistance due to situations that they cannot control. For example, if a single mother of three kids gets laid off due to the harsh economy, at some point, she has no other choice but to ask for help. Eventually, she may have to utilize public assistance that the government has put in place such as food stamps, Medicaid, or welfare. If the government makes drug testing mandatory, the single mother of three has only one choice to make—do whatever the government requires to feed

The article, “States Adding Drug Test as Hurdle for Welfare” stated that in three dozen sates proposed drug testing for the people that are on welfare. However, people say that the tax dollars given to them are not being misused and that it’s promoting stereotypes about the poor. the article says that in Florida, people that receive welfare have to pay for their own drug tests. Also, it says that people argued that it was unreasonable to drug test those on welfare and that it was an act of search and seizure. It’s noted that drug tests are getting more and more required for getting jobs. Ellen Brandom, a state representative in Missouri said, “Working people today work very hard to make ends meet, and it just doesn’t seem fair to them that

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).

Drug Testing Welfare Recipients 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 in 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. Drug testing welfare recipients is negative because drug tests performed on welfare