Show Me You're Drug Free in Missouri
Applicants to the state program to give cash aid to needy families will be drug tested, if the House bill that passed by a wide margin is approved by the Senate and the Governor of Missouri. The kicker? Those very elected officials will also be drug tested, according to the same bill.
As the legislation now stands, welfare recipients will be tested only on suspicion of use, but lawmakers, judges and other statewide elected leaders would be required to undergo testing before taking office and every two years hence. The officials themselves would be responsible for paying for their drug testing; the Department of Social Services would take care of the costs for those who receive welfare benefits.
The legislative leaders said that requiring testing for aid recipients and not themselves would be hypocritical - touche.
For an in-depth discussion about current trends in drug testing, see the latest issue of the Journal of Global Drug Policy and Practice
Comments
good thing truly dangerous
good thing truly dangerous drugs like crack and methamphetamine aren't likely to turn up in those tests. same with commonly abused pharmaceuticals. better for these people to turn to those substances and away from the (socially) toxic natural herb cannabis. oh what a tangled web we weave through the drug war.
What could go wrong?
Oh my! Could there possibly be any unintended consequences to drug testing welfare recipients? Like, uh, maybe driving them to use the toxic and dangerous legal drug alcohol instead?
Reading is fundamental
If you read the article linked there, you'll find that a big concern for these legislators and their constituents was the fact that people were using their cash benefits from the state to buy drugs. I sure wouldn't want my tax dollars used that way.
selective conservatism
So we make an effort to exclude drug users from any kind of help from the state. Obviously this won't stop the drug use. This will only drive these people deeper into the underworld of drugs and crime. So instead your taxes will be going towards conducting these expensive tests, incarcerating drug users in the endless loop of the criminal justice system and investigating and attempting to combat the increasing crime caused by drug users without money to feed themselves and drug users being recruited into drug gangs because they have no other option to support themselves. That will be FAR more expensive to the taxpayers. This is not DRUG testing. It is cannabis testing. Abstinence from harder drugs for just a couple days renders it undetectable in the system. The most commonly abused pharmaceuticals aren't even tested for in standard drug tests. And obviously this will do nothing to prevent alcoholics from using taxpayer resources to fund THEIR addiction. So this policy will directly drive people in low-income or no-income situations towards more dangerous and less detectable substances; and thus drive up the social costs associated with use of these substances. You want your tax dollars used in that way? Yes, there are drug addicts that cannot go a couple days without using drugs. And these are the people that are likely to use state aid to buy drugs. But remove that and you will simply have crackheads knifing you in the kidney and taking it directly. But hey, it's not tax money. This is called selective conservatism.
So...
So we're supposed to let people dig a bigger hole for themselves and fund their addictions?
So... We stop treating these
So... We stop treating these people like criminals and we support them and help them break their addiction, if it is really an addiction we're speaking of. The majority of people who will be ensnared by this new law will be cannabis users, made easy targets because of how long the metabolites remain detectable in the system.
This is yet another way the system puts a foot on the back of those who have fallen on hard times. Even if the individual really is an addict, how is making life harder for them going to make it any easier for them to conquer their addiction? This will also be driving people towards the more toxic and dangerous yet perfectly legal alternatives of alcohol and pharmaceutical drugs. In the case of pharmaceuticals, your tax dollars will not only go towards buying the drugs, they will pay the doctor to prescribe them. I wonder how many livers your tax dollars will have to pay for before you decide it would have been cheaper to just feed these people and invest in substance abuse treatment. Oh well, the alcohol, drug and prison lobbies are happy. They pay good money for laws like these to ensure their best interest. Down on your luck in Missouri? Well I got some good news for you. You can help the state pay to put a prison guard's kid through collage! All under the guise of saving the state money. Pee in this cup and find out how.
Nanny State
Missouri faces a $779 million dollar budget deficit for 2010 and they want to start drug testing welfare recipients? How much is this gonna cost? No doubt in our corporatocracy I'm sure contracts will be awarded by the state to private companies to do the drug testing which in turn will charge double what a drug test costs but that's not even the point. How far is the nanny state gonna go to test for Marijuana (let's face it, that's what they're testing for, just about everything else leaves the system in a day or so) Let's just keep spending on that state credit card, we might not be able to foot the bill tomorrow but as they say "tomorrow never comes"
PS, if a public option were to pass in health care would the state have a vested interest in testing everyone using that public option with the excuse that they're doing it to keep health care costs down?