Drug
Testing For Welfare
Joe
Henderson
Last year, Utah Legislation passed a law that would
require all welfare applicants to get screened for drugs. “The whole purpose is
to get people back to work.” Said Rep. Brad Wilson. There are multiple steps to
this process. First, there is a written questionnaire that tests for a high
probability of drug use. The suspicious people are then drug tested. According
to thinkprocess.org, “The state spent
nearly $6,000 on written tests for 4,730 applicants, 466 of which had to take a
drug test, which cost more than $25,000.” If you test positive, you are
required to complete a substance abuse treatment program. In the end, the
entire program saved the state nearly $350,000. Not only because they caught 12
people, but 250 didn’t even give an effort to apply for government assistance
because they knew they would test positive for illegal substances. This whole
program gives initiative to the people living off the government to go find a
job. In the end, the states of Utah spent $30,000 to put the program into
effect and saved $350,000 out of it. That’s $320,000 back into the taxpayers’
wallets in the first year that would have gone to people that abuse illegal substances.
There has been some controversy over the whole drug testing dilemma, but bills
like the one in Utah have passed in 9 states. With over 100 million families
receiving some sort of government assistance, it is only right to make sure we
are giving the money to people who really need it.
In Florida, there was a
large controversy over if it was really saving the taxpayers money. They spent
$45,000 on the program and only caught 2% of the recipients. The other 98%
passed and it ultimately cost the taxpayers to pay a little more. States like
Minnesota want to make the drug testing random. If this were to be in effect,
the state could set a budget on how much to spend on the drug tests and how
many people to test. For most jobs, you have to pass a drug test so it’s only
fair for the welfare recipients to get tested also.
Works Cited
"CLiNiCAL CYNiC." 100 million
Americans on welfare....Web. 4 Mar. 2014.
<http://clinicalcynicism.blogspot.com/2012/08/100000000-americans-on-welfare.html>.
"Minnesota Officials Complain That Drug
Testing Welfare Recipients Is A Waste Of Time And Money." ThinkProgress
RSS. Web. 2 Mar. 2014.
<http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/12/30/3108101/minnesota-drug-testing/#>.
"Utah Spent More Than $30,000 To Catch
12 Drug Users On Welfare." ThinkProgress RSS. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.
<http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/08/27/2532851/utah-spent-30000-catch-12-drug-users-welfare/#>.
"Utah's welfare drug testing saved more
than $350,000 in first year, officials say." DeseretNews.com. Web.
2 Mar. 2014. <http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765637435/Utah-officials-say-welfare-drug-tests-save-money.html>.
"Why drug testing of welfare recipients
is a bad idea | Station.6.Underground." Why drug testing of welfare
recipients is a bad idea | Station.6.Underground. Web. 4 Mar. 2014.
<http://stationsixunderground.blogspot.com/2011/06/why-drug-testing-of-welfare-recipients.html#axzz2uGBmuLe4>.
Though this does seem to be a good idea at first glance, when I read figures like a cost of 30,000 dollars to catch 12 users of drugs, I can't help but see this as a ludicrous solution to a nearly non-existent problem. With a GDP of 105.7 billion dollars and total debt of above 22 billion dollars, even if this saved the state several hundred thousand dollars, it wasn't worth the time to consider and pass the law. The difference it will make is absolutely negligible. Welfare "abuse" is possibly the most overly publicized and yet least prevalent and important problem our country has ever had. Though they may have good intentions, the benefits of drug-testing welfare programs are not even close to worth the effort of implementation.
ReplyDeleteI think the whole concept of not giving money to the people who live off welfare and are abusing the system by being lazy and doing drugs is a great idea, but I do feel that this is a lot of money to spend and not enough results. The welfare situation is something that I have a pretty firm belief on, and I think that many Americans do abuse the welfare benefits and should be getting their butts up and getting jobs. Catching only 12 people out of 466 isn't necessarily doing too much, especially considering all the money that was going into these tests. Therefore, I disagree with Seans comment above - If our states/country can find a more effective and inexpensive way to fix this issue, then I'm all for it.
ReplyDeleteI thought that it was a good idea for Utah and other states because it will help bring government spending down and maybe even help bring drug problems done because if someone who is on drugs really needs government assistance may end up trying to come clean if they know that there going to be drug tested when they sign up for government assistance. I agree with your closing statement if we have to be drug tested for a job why don’t we have to be tested when applying for government assistance.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of trying not to give the poor their drug money is a good one, but is hard to actually to put into place as an effective use to save taxpayers money. Although Utah saved some money by the drug program, is was so minuscule that it would be way less than a dollar per tax payer ($300,000 saved for around 2 million tax payers). The better example of how the program would work is Florida, which lost nearly $200 million dollars, when they were trying to save money. The point of this is that despite popular belief, people actually use the welfare checks to try and survive in the current state of economy.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the idea of requiring drug testing for the welfare is a good idea because from the stories that I've heard on the radio or have seen on the news where people are having children to help get checks to help pay for things is absolutely ridiculous because the money they are receiving for drugs or alcohol shouldn't be permitted. In order for this idea to work they would need to find a way to do this without spending that much money and finding more people who are abusing the system.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea all around, it is easy to take a stand on this topic because why would we support those who abuse drugs. I was the amount to test the individuals is substantial, however its worth is because “$320,000 back into the taxpayers’ wallets in the first year that would have gone to people that abuse illegal substances” our profit margin was great than our than the amount of money that we spent. It’s about time America starts cracking down on all those people that abuse welfare. Many people who use that money think it is their right; however it is not, it is simply a privilege.
ReplyDeleteExcellent article. Very interesting to read. I really love to read such a nice article. Thanks! keep rocking. THC Clean
ReplyDeletenice http://pewaukeeeconomics.blogspot.com/2014/03/drug-testing-for-welfare.html
ReplyDelete