Sunday, February 21st, 2016
Stephan: One of the nastier characteristics of the Theocratic Right is their obsession with shaming the poor. One of the ways this is done in public policy is drug testing as part of qualifying for something from the social safety network. The presumption behind such laws being that, as all Theocratic Rightists "know" the poor, particularly the poor of color, are drug fiends, and tax dollars are being recklessly spent to enable them to indulge their habit.
The obvious stupidity of this position -- how can people who can't afford food for their children spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on drugs -- made little difference to legislatures in Red value states. And so 13 states set up such tests, and hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent measuring piss from the poor. Oh, did I mention that the companies doing the tests had highly questionable financial relationships with state legislators who passed these laws? No? Well you can guess. And the outcome? Read this report.
Urine drug test sample bottle
North Carolina has joined a growing list of states that have spent huge sums of money to drug test welfare recipients in order to make sure they weren’t wasting government money on drugs — only to find out that they rarely use drugs.
The state launched the program in August, and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services recently revealed to Vox that 0.3 percent of the approximate 7,600 applicants and recipients screened for drug abuse tested positive for drug use.
Other states have seen similar results. A mere 0.17 percent of the 39,121 applicants tested in Tennessee were found to be using illicit drugs, according to the Tennessean. In Arizona, more than 87,000 welfare recipients went through drug testing and only one person tested positive, USA Today reports.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, at least 13 states drug test welfare recipients and another 19 states have proposed similar legislation.
This type of legislation was […]
A total waste of money for welfare recipients. In a recent conversation, my friends suggested that Congress be tested for drug use.