Drug testing welfare recipients: Discuss

[Drich]

This is awesome! They should make this a nation wide policy.

It pushes people to reconcile or at least deal with their drug problems on one level or another, rather than enable them to continue unchecked. The rest of soceity WORKS under these conditions, why should the poor or even working poor not be subject to these very same rights and responsiablities?

I agree for cash assistance, that shit shouldn't just be handed to people. But food assist should never be conditional, ever. Certainly not for alcoholics when alcohol is LEgal and taxed by the state.
"Oh lets tax your addiction then when you're too hard up from that addiction: fuck you."

Note that only four people out of those 477 households actually got the treatment. Also notice that the implementation of said tests were scare tactics, nothing more--the lack of informing the testees that they'd receive the benefits if they go to treatment is a RED FLAG. You know what else is a red flag? The government over-stepping it's bounds. I can understand if it tested people with prior misdameanors or felonies or a history of drug or alcohol addiction. In all reality would you Drich, actually go pee in a cup for the government if you were out of work and needed food assistance? Or would you feel indignant that it's none of their goddamn business? It's none of their business, unless you've broken a law. Plain out, NOT their business. Their business is providing the support services needed to keep society running.

Here's the thing: you have poor families afraid of losing their kids. Plain and simple. All this is going to do is drive families on the fringe, down to the ground. And whose gonna catch them? Certainly not the Republicans, oh no. They're too busy pissing on people. Would you send your own children to foster care? No? then why expect others not to fight for their own, addiction or not? Their homes are typically better than a foster care situation, not to mention the giant influx of foster care this is going to cause. They already can't handle the burden of that the state faces already with adoption and fostering. No one's going to go get help because that would include endangering the coherence of their family units (and attaining possible legal issues), and family bonds are tight. Self-preservation is tighter--no one's going to go voluntarily say they have a drug problem and ensue legal troubles on themselves. Unfortunately thanks to biology: family bonds have proven to not be tighter than addiction, and granted there needs to be more oversight on childrens rights, but families none the less who are struggling already will now be left dead in the water.

So long as you understand you're standing your ground with starving children at your feet.

I've been watched as I peed in a cup to keep a crappy job that paid less than those who collected benfits got. Again if someone who works their ass off to pay taxes all pee in cups then so too should the people who spend that money.

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Drug testing should not happen, period. If you're sober and clear-headed while on the job, and your activities are not causing substantive harm to those around you, what you do at home is irrelevant.

That maybe true if you flip burgers or clean toilets, but for any job requiring any higher brain functions, stoner mistakes cost employers money.

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It's easier to yell "get a job!" than to work to make sure a job is available.

What have you done?