Drug testing for Welfare payments

[dutchwrangler]

“The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.” -- Frédéric Bastiat

 

[vvvvvvv]

A pilot program was conducted from 1999-2001 in the Jacksonville area. At that time, 335 out of 8,000 applicants (4%) failed, and it was shown that the program would cost the state more than it saved.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/05/2203328/bill-requiring-welfare-recipients.html

But Republicans don't care about increased unnecessary spending as long as it lines up with their "principles" of social moral elitism.

 

[RidgeHunter]

Republicans don't care about increased unnecessary spending as long as it lines up with their "principles" of social moral elitism.

That's the new GOP tagline, isn't it?

 

[inactive]

Red Herring, in that most* people pay into the SSI system and are drawing back their contributions.

*(I really don't know this to be a fact)

I am actually using this to ask the question of "where do we draw the line?" TANF? SSI? Earned Income Credit? Medicaid? Jury duty pay? IRS stimulus checks?

 

[J.P.]

Whats worse of that 2% that are declined there is no way to seperate the heavy drug users, like meth heads, from the recreational ones who only smoke pot.

What about recreational ones who only smoke meth?
(as opposed to heavy pot smokers)

 

[SMS]

Just because the pilot program failed doesn't mean the idea is flawed. Looks like the program was set up poorly. Who was doing the testing? How often did the recipients test? What kind of test did they use? etc....loved the part where they increased the payout to cover the cost of the test. Umm, no you can cover that cost if you want to be in the program.

The fact that they were charging $35 per test is a red flag...testing tech has come a long way in 10 years since this program. A 10-panel dip strip that covers the entire range of the most commonly used drugs costs a whopping $3 and takes 3 minutes to administer from start to finish. Not every test needs to go to a lab.

 

[RidgeHunter]

What about recreational ones who only smoke meth?
(as opposed to heavy pot smokers)

Well the meth user sleeps way less than the stoner, so he could work the day shift *and* the night shift and then donate the extra money to the stoner who obviously can't be expected to put in that many hours and still get 16 hours of sleep a day. It's only fair.

 

[J.P.]

Looks like the program was set up poorly..

That seems to happen quite frequently.
I don't see any reason to believe another states' would be much different...

 

[dutchwrangler]

Welfare = Theft. From. Me.

 

[338Shooter]

Meh, I'd rather we just got rid of welfare. Government using money to make people act certain ways seems funny to me.