Drug Tests for Welfare Recipients in Utah Produce Negative Results

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We’ve heard the argument before from members of the Republican party who lambaste individuals on welfare,calling them everything from wards of the state to lazy pot smoking drug addicts. Many are in favor of programs that would see recipients of welfare going to mandatory drug testing each month. As Republican speaker of the Wyoming House put it, “The idea from Joe Taxpayer is, ‘I don’t mind helping you out, but you need to show that you’re looking for work, or better yet that you’re employed, and that you’re drug and alcohol free.’”

Despite the moral repercussions of implementing a drug testing program, think about the costs of such a program. The Health and Human Services Department is in charge of this program and estimated the cost of implementing it in 12 states. The estimated costs in these States ranged from $92,487, for drug testing 20% of recipients and treating 2% of those tested in Louisiana, to $20 million, for just the testing of all public assistance applicants and recipients in New York.

So, now that we have a program that actually is drug testing recipients of welfare, how many of those individuals tested positive for drugs? Get ready…
12

That’s right. Not 12,000. Not 1,200. 12. The idea that an individual must be a drug user or has some other impediment that makes them less good or able than those who do not collect welfare is simply not true. Perhaps the reason so many Americans collect welfare is not because they are drug addicts, but because we keep minimum wage below what an individual, much less a family, can support themselves on. To quote Noam Chomsky, “minimum wage ought to be indexed to the cost of living and high enough to prevent falling below the poverty line. Eighty percent of the public support that and forty percent of the wealthy. What’s the minimum wage? Going down, way below these levels.” The sad truth is that the very wealthy shape policy in this country, while the most disenfranchised Americans have to take a piss before they can afford to eat.

Michael Komorn-Criminal Defense Attorney

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