Drug Testing for Welfare Free Essays

Drug Testing for Welfare According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, 4,300,000 Americans are on government based aid, or welfare. That is a little over four percent of the population in America. Welfare is an income based government aid that supports individuals and their families financially if they are unable to support themselves. We will write a custom essay sample on Drug Testing for Welfare or any similar topic only for you Order Now Welfare is not just given out; you have to apply and be accepted in order to receive the money. Welfare is an income-based aid, drug testing before being granted welfare should be mandatory. There would be many advantages to administering drug test to people who want to receive help in the form of government aid. Drug testing before granting any person welfare checks should be mandatory. An advantage to having welfare recipients drug tested before being granted welfare is that the recipient may be more willing to get help or seek treatment if government aid is being hindered. An article from Health and Human services writes that â€Å"in states where drug testing is mandatory to receive welfare, they have seen people quit using drugs and alcohol, which makes them more employable. (brainstatistics. com) Not all individuals are using the money from welfare for drugs, but many people are. People who are on welfare and doing drugs are double negatives to society and do not contribute. They aren’t trying to be employable so they can remain on welfare. Also, drug testing these people could have a net savings for the government, but that would just be another aspect tha t contributes to drug testing welfare recipients. When saving the government money and potentially turning people’s lives around being drug tested before receiving government aid would be a good change for society. The taxpayers in the United States should not have to support a drug user’s addiction. When welfare recipients are not drug tested before receiving welfare checks they could be using the checks, or the taxpayer’s money to buy their drugs, alcohol or cigarettes. Making sure welfare  is being spent on appropriate items is hard to control once the money is in the pocket of an individual, but drug testing before, and potentially during an individual’s time on welfare could eliminate money lost to drugs and alcohol during the recipient’s time on welfare. In doing this it is saving the government money and using the taxpayer’s money for something that contributes to a positive aspect in society. When the government is handing out welfare checks to people who are using them for drugs the money is not being spent with the right intentions and is not only hurting our economy, but we are the ones supporting it. When doing the drug tests, it will eliminate the drug users and hopefully convince them to get help or stay clean so they are able to get a job or become eligible for welfare. In my opinion drug testing should be mandatory. Taxpayer’s should not be putting money into a drug fund, we should be giving government aid to the individuals who are struggling, not because of an addiction or a habit, we should be contributing to the single moms, or the retired soldiers, or the critically ill. If an individual is in need of the money bad enough and they are using it for the right reasons then a simple drug test should not be an issue. Especially since they are not paying for it themselves, not only will this benefit the government but also it could benefit the individuals who are using drugs. If they need the money bad enough it could be an incentive for them to get clean. It will be an expensive fix, but when you help individuals who would usually be on state or government aid become an employee, they can get off of state or government aid and support themselves. When people are becoming independent and getting off government aid, the government starts saving money on the people who would have been using the money for drugs or alcohol. I think welfare is an amazing â€Å"temporary† aid for people who are struggling but when people start to rely on it is when the government has issues. Nothing is ever bad unless you misuse it. Although there are many positive aspects to drug testing welfare applicants, there are also negative aspects to giving drug tests to every applicant. Not only could doing mandatory drug tests upset the people who aren’t using drugs and could violate privacy laws, but drug testing could be a very expensive fix to a huge problem, when drug testing individuals the taxpayer would be paying for the tests to be done on each individual. The prices could add up and could put a debt on the state in the turn-around wasn’t a positive one. There could be a short fall in the money you spend and the money you would immediately save. This could cost the state and government a large sum of money to start out with and if the results weren’t good the state could lose more money than they would have without doing the drug tests. Mandatory drug testing should be a requirement for individuals to be eligible for welfare. There are far more positive aspects to drug testing than there are negative. If there are over four million people on government aid we should make a movement to try and get a percentage of those people into jobs and independently making their own money. Once they are independently making their own money the government will not be responsible for them anymore. Applying and being granted government aid is not a right, it is a privilege and to many people take advantage of the system. If government aid is misused, one day we will not be able to use it, and that will be because the people who didn’t actually need it, or the people who used it to supply their addiction or their habit abused it and we ran out of money. If welfare is a privilege, then people should be willing to do whatever it takes to get approved, including a required drug test to prove that you are not going to spend the government’s money on drugs or alcohol. When doing that you gain the state and governments trust, if you accomplish that they grant you welfare checks to temporarily support you. That’s how the system should be run so our taxpayer’s are supporting the people who are financially struggling. Works Cited â€Å"Welfare Statistics. † Statisticbrain. com/welfare-statistics/. US Department of Health and Human Services, 15 Oct. 2012. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. Geenblatt, Alan. â€Å"Does Drug Testing Welfare Recipients Save Money? † Does Drug Testing Welfare Recipients Save Money? N. p. , July 2012. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. http://www. governing. com/topics/health-human-services/gov-does-drug-testing-welfare-recipients-save-money. html. Smith, Phillip. â€Å"Feature: Bills to Require Drug Testing for Welfare, Unemployment Pop Up Around the Country. † Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Prohibition. N. p. 20 Mar. 2009. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. http://stopthedrugwar. org/chronicle/2009/mar/20/feature_bills_require_drug_testi. â€Å"Should Welfare Recipients Be Tested for Drugs. † US News. U. S. News World Report, n. d. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. http://www. usnews. com/debate-club/should-welfare-recipients-be-tested-for-drugs. J. F. â€Å"Welfare and Drug Testing. † The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 2 Sept. 2011. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. http://www. ec onomist. com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/09/welfare-and-drug-testing. How to cite Drug Testing for Welfare, Papers Drug Testing for Welfare Free Essays The Push for Drug Testing of Welfare Recipients United States lawmakers face one of the most pressing issues of our time-welfare reform. New screening processes, often considered a direct violation of constitutional rights, have already been enacted in many states. Strong evidence exists, asserting that the practice of administering drug testing to welfare recipients will cost the U. We will write a custom essay sample on Drug Testing for Welfare or any similar topic only for you Order Now S. taxpayers more money in the long run, stigmatize applicants and participants, and serve only the purpose of making the pharmaceutical companies more powerful. In order to protect the constitutional rights of potential welfare recipients, United States awmakers should avoid further criminalizing the poor by submitting them to drug testing and/or a nationwide welfare registry. This year, 29 states have either proposed or already passed legislation calling for drug testing to receive welfare benefits. Brian Kelley reports that of those 29 states, several are seeing a great deal of financial loss as a result of this legislation: During the past year, the state of Utah has spent over $30,000 giving drug tests to welfare recipients. In that time period, only 2. 6 percent of those tested were found to have used illegal substances † well below the national use rate of 8. 9 percent (1). Kelley goes on to report: In 2012, three years and 87,000 screenings later, only one person had failed a drug test. Total savings from denying that one person benefits? $560. Total benefits paid out in that time? $200 million. Even if we include the savings from cutting benefits to the 1,633 people who didn’t return the pre-test survey, it brings the total to only 0. percent of the amount distributed over that period (1). The numbers do not lie†little evidence exists that supports the claim that drug testing recipients will save money. Striving to prove that the main source of the drug problem in the United States lies in he recipients of the welfare program, policymakers continue to work fervently. The overgeneralization of the poor as drug users has become common practice in Washington. Lawmakers seem to feel th at because recipients receive government funding, they in turn give up their constitutional rights as U. S. citizens. The practice of criminalizing the poor has become commonplace in the creation of U. S. governmental policy. Karen Gustafson is someone who knows a lot about the criminalization of the poor. She has spent much of her time researching and writing about Just that. According to Gustafson, â€Å"The public desire to deter and punish welfare cheating has overwhelmed the will to provide economic security to vulnerable members of society (644). † Because of the misuse of welfare funds by a few, the entire underprivileged population has been targeted as criminals†as lazy, drug abusing sponges. Over the past several decades, the United States government has spent billions of dollars in an effort to catch and prosecute those who are abusing the welfare system. This practice is necessary in order to rid the welfare system of abusers. However, often verlooked is the fact that there are many recipients who are not drug users and are still in need of aid. It is the duty of the U. S. government to provide aid without encouraging potential participants to teel like they are being considered as potential criminals from the very beginning of the application process. The cross-agency process involved in the welfare and criminal Justice systems is unconstitutional and an invasion of the privacy of the American underprivileged. As welfare reform began to take place so did the social misconception that recipients are criminals did as well. In fact, welfare recipients often receive the same treatment as parolees and probationers. This is in part due to the fact that too many law enforcement techniques are embedded in the welfare system. Gustafson tells us: Her social security number has been matched against state and national criminal records The financial information she has provided has been matched against various employment databases, IRS records, and Franchise Tax Board records Her personal information has been entered into the welfare system’s database, which may be accessed by law enforcement officers without any basis for suspicion All f this has occurred before she has received a single welfare check (645). There is no doubt that those Americans in need of assistance have been subjected to unconstitutional treatment by the welfare program. As a result of the criminal actions of a few, all of the needy are being unfairly scrutinized. The implementation of unfounded drug testing in addition to the already criminalizing application process will only serve to further stigmatize the needy†and all in the name of the mighty dollar. Some believe that it is not the quest to save money that is the driving force behind the push for this legislation. Rather, it is a desire to make millions for the pharmaceutical companies that lawmakers are seeking to achieve. Lobbyist interference from multi-million dollar pharmaceutical companies has heavily influenced Washington lawmakers’ policymaking. These pharmaceutical companies have their hand in much of the United States lawmaking practice. These powerful corporations stand to make a lot of money from the sale of drug testing supplies and services to the U. S. government. Macdonald reports: several Republican lawmakers in Congress have pushed hard for the mandatory drug testing of anyone, nywhere, applying for welfare. Leading the charge in the senate is Orrin Hatch who received $8,000 campaign contributions in 2012 from the political action committee of Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp), $3000 from another political action committee to which LabCorp contributes, as well as $4000 in campaign contributions from another company with major interests in drug testing, Abbott Laboratories (15). According to Macdonald, Orrin Hatch is not the only lawmaker with these corporations in his pocket. â€Å"GOP Congressman Charles Boustany received $1 5,000 from Abbott Laboratories (15). The fact that Congressmen and women are receiving contributions from pharmaceutical companies is disturbing to say the least. The American underprivileged do not stand a chance at ever overcoming their circumstances as long as lawmakers continue to be driven by greed, rather than their best interest. If United States lawmakers really had the best interest of the underprivileged in mind, they would be focusing fewer resources on treating those who test positive for substance abuse and more on the underlying mental and physical causes for the abuse. Pollack tells us, â€Å"Even among women who eported recent illicit substance abuse, depression, physical health problems and limited education were actually more common barriers to self-sufficiency and social tunctioning(2) † Pollack turtner states, â€Å"Most weltare recipients [ . ] were casual marijuana users who didn’t meet screening criteria for marijuana (or other substance use) disorders. Ironically, chemical testing technologies were most sensitive to identifying marijuana users who rarely needed addiction services (2). Mental and physical disabilities and the lack of healthcare are often the underlying cause of drug use to begin with as a means of self-medication. These issues receive far too little attention in the U. S. government policy decisions, unlike that of drug use. Pollack’s research outlines the statistical data on illicit drug use as it compares to mental and physical health problems: However one runs the numbers, illicit drug use disorders are not common among welfare recipients. Other physical and mental health problems are far more prevalent. How to cite Drug Testing for Welfare, Papers