Why We Shouldn’t Drug Test Welfare Recipients

I came across a recent article that made some interesting points and started some good discussion. I want to hear what you think now.

You’ve probably seen those unofficial polls and surveys floating around the web asking if you are in favor or against welfare recipients being drug tested.

Much of this debate began when Florida Governor Rick Scott signed into law a bill like this arguing,

Now, this applies to cash welfare recipients, and it makes sense at first, right? If your family is poor and the government is giving you tax payer money trying to help your family, you’ll hopefully spend that money on family necessities instead of a substance addiction. As much as any rational thinking tax payer wishes that to be the case, there are bigger reasons why a bill like that is a bad move.

By the way, I’m going to leave the war on drugs out of this conversation. Perhaps we can revisit that topic another time. (In case your curious, in my opinion America’s “war on drugs” is one of the biggest jokes and wastes of time and tax money that our government has come up with yet.)

Here’s the more important issues that I think you should be looking at in this case:

1. Constitutionality, and
2. Our Government’s inability to draw the line anywhere.

Constitutionality:

According to the Fourth Ammendment of our Constitution,“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Like it or not, suddenly requiring someone take and pass a drug test to continue the welfare they have been receiving violates this. Unfortunately for you and I, many of our political leaders don’t do their primary job of protecting our Constitution.

Politics:

The other question to ask is why are you wanting to target only welfare recipients for drug testing? Is it because you view them as non-contributing parasites to the taxpayers? Sounds like your complaint should lie more in our government’s broken welfare system.

If one of the reasons you’re drug testing them is because they’re receiving tax payer money, then why not require drug tests for people who receive government help (via tax payers) in the form of non-cash welfare like food stamps or government housing; why not recipients of help such as Medicaid, FEMA, or a government loan or educational grant? They’re receiving benefits from the government too, so it’s only fair to treat all recipients equally. Every citizen reaps benefits from the government in some form (roads, FDA, police forces, fire departments, schools), so then why not require that every citizen who benefits in some form from tax payer money be required to pass a drug test?

There is no way that our government could draw a line, let alone a line that was fair and didn’t violate the Constitution. If the government gets an inch, they’ll take a mile, and before you can blink the special interest groups and lobbyist will pollute every good intention that the original bill presented while in its infancy.

The fact is, many welfare recipients are not going to buy drugs with their money. Some will though, and yeah, that sucks. Drug testing welfare recipients isn’t the solution though. Fixing welfare is a better place to start. I think we should look at the bigger issues at hand, and then ask ourselves — Will adding yet another government regulation to a broken system realistically solve its main problems, do you care about your Constitutional rights as a citizen being compromised, and do you think it’s possible for our current political system to draw a fair line and abide by it?

Thoughts?