Two bills are currently moving through state legislatures in Texas and Kansas which would tie welfare benefits to mandatory drug testing. A recently-passed Kansas bill goes a step further, requiring drug tests for unemployment recipients as well.
Previous attempts by state legislatures to welfare benefits to drug screening in both Florida and Georgia failed, because they called for testing regardless of whether an individual recipient appeared to be a drug user.
Other states that unsuccessfully explored drug testing with unemployment services include New Jersey and Indiana, and the policy was even attempted within a Republican plan for the federal extension of unemployment benefits in 2012, which would have empowered individual states to drug screen prior to disbursing unemployment benefits.
The argument invoked by legislators looking to integrate drug testing into either or both unemployment and welfare is to prevent taxpayer money from being used to purchase illegal drugs. Meanwhile, opponents such as the ACLU argue that such efforts are based on the erroneous assumption that welfare recipients purchase and consume drugs at a higher percentage than the general population.
In 2011, Florida’s Governor Rick Scott successfully stumped for mandatory drug screenings of all recipients of the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), though the ACLU was quick to point out that only 2 per cent of drug tests came back positive before a federal judge blocked the law. In Florida’s case, TANF applicants were also responsible for paying for their own drug screening, to be reimbursed later with tax payer money, assuming the test came back negative.
States seeking compulsory drug tests for benefits recipients รข€” RT USA
Previous attempts by state legislatures to welfare benefits to drug screening in both Florida and Georgia failed, because they called for testing regardless of whether an individual recipient appeared to be a drug user.
Other states that unsuccessfully explored drug testing with unemployment services include New Jersey and Indiana, and the policy was even attempted within a Republican plan for the federal extension of unemployment benefits in 2012, which would have empowered individual states to drug screen prior to disbursing unemployment benefits.
The argument invoked by legislators looking to integrate drug testing into either or both unemployment and welfare is to prevent taxpayer money from being used to purchase illegal drugs. Meanwhile, opponents such as the ACLU argue that such efforts are based on the erroneous assumption that welfare recipients purchase and consume drugs at a higher percentage than the general population.
In 2011, Florida’s Governor Rick Scott successfully stumped for mandatory drug screenings of all recipients of the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), though the ACLU was quick to point out that only 2 per cent of drug tests came back positive before a federal judge blocked the law. In Florida’s case, TANF applicants were also responsible for paying for their own drug screening, to be reimbursed later with tax payer money, assuming the test came back negative.
States seeking compulsory drug tests for benefits recipients รข€” RT USA