Florida Welfare

I just heard that Florida governor Rick Scott has just passed legislation that requires any adult applying for welfare needs to pass a drug screen. I say ABOUT DAMN TIME! Share your thoughts and opinions.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/06/05/florida.welfare.drug.testing/

Surprisingly, despite the rampant illicit drug abuse in the USA, most American adults are in favor of this type of legislation.

Many, many reputable employers require drug screening during the hiring or pre-employment phase of the employer-to-employee relationship. Often, a positive test equals termination with little-to-no chance of appeal.

I see no reason why someone receiving tax-funded income from the government shouldn't be required to be drug-free, too.

The only sticking point on this type of legislation is ensuring that it's cost-effective. If the government has to spend more money on issuing the drug tests and ensuring the security and accuracy of the test results than it was spending on providing welfare money to drug users ... then it becomes a useless effort from a budgetary standpoint. However, I'd still stand behind the policy on moral grounds.

IIRC, the article says that the applicant must pay for the drug screening themselves and if they pass, they get refunded for the cost. However, if they fail, they receive no reimbursement and cannot apply for no less than 1 year.

Thank God! I don't want to recognize this side of the family, but I would love to see a certain seedy family member who lives in that state cut off finally.

Correct.
However, there is still the cost of paying the person who administers the test, the people who secure and maintain the confidentiality of the records, the security officers who patrol the clinic, etc.
All this presumes that the State would actually be conducting and overseeing the testing process.
If the State instead plans to outsource the testing to contracted private clinics ... that opens up a whole new can of worms.

Over time, I've made it pretty clear that I'm general fairly anti-conservative. However, in this case, I've got to call out and mock the liberals that are protesting against this legislation.

There's no way in hell that drug screening for Welfare applicants is unconstitutional or a violation of Fourth Amendment rights. It's not like the police would be going around the streets and randomly detaining citizens to force them into giving a urine sample. The drug screening would ONLY be required IF a person sought to apply for Welfare payments. Welfare isn't a right. It's a privilege and a responsibility. If you don't want to take a drug test, don't apply. If you want to pass the drug test, don't do drugs. If you want to do drugs, don't expect Welfare payments.

It floors me that anyone in politics, no matter how liberal, could fail to see that fewer drug users in America would be a good thing for the country.

Definitely a step in the right direction, and frankly long past due IMO.

I'm slightly on the fence on this, could be good, could go horribly wrong.

In general I find drug screening to be "wrong" and this misconception that everyone who does drugs is a horrible person, however they shouldn't be wasting money on drugs when requiring aid.

On the note about people worthy of aid, they should also limit what's allowable on food stamps (ie: no candy) and require that those people not drink/smoke (at least when they are taking care of children).

I see far too many trashy people buy junk on food stamps and then buy alcohol/smokes, it's disgusting.

generally i've got some qualms about drug testing overstepping the bounds of civil liberty

that said, i think you give up some of those rights when you ask the government for free money

i'm entirely in favor of it

Agreed. Need to give some to take some.

I'm sorry, not trying to troll or anything, but where did you get this information. What source? You didn't pull this out of your *** did you?

Any chance they could do something like this to foodstamps, as well?

I'm in favor of legalizing all drugs and I'm still hugely in favor of this.

If you want to take government tax money you must play by their rules.

You wanna smoke crack and deal drugs and collect a welfare check? Too bad now.

ITT: Drug tests are hard to beat

Depends on who's doing it.. Some places use more stringent testing, like looking for wizzinators and such, others give you a cup and put you in a stall with a closed door and don't even check the stall before or after.

The ones that the government do tends to do are the variety where they have a man watching your penis the entire time you are peeing.

I have to take a drug test monthly and I could fake it every month and have on several occasions. When you just go into a bathroom by yourself, it's stupid easy to fake.

that's what they did in the army :/

i know there are ways to pass even those, but i just don't get the feeling drug-addicted welfare recipients as a group would be very good at outfoxing even moderately sophisticated drug testing

i could be wrong, though

About the only good thing rick scott has done ... ever.


I do like this new thing though.

Been saying this for years, if people want to buy drugs, let them... cut out the sellers, tax it to hell and sell it!

or if you keep the sellers, make them either have a permit or something of the sorts for it or uh ... regulate it somehow I dunno lol.

This is obviously the solution to tons of social problems, but this will never happen in the states. I mean, we can barely get weed legalized, getting all of them legalized would take a miracle.

People don't seem to understand that junkies can get drugs... whenever they want. Seriously. I don't even know anyone who I could get meth or crack from, but if I made a couple phone calls or asked around I could find them pretty easily.

Government grade heroin.. I can dream, right?

I say *** YEAH bout mother F$%king time lol. NOW NYS GET YOUR ***TOGETHER AND JOIN THE CAUSE..........44 billion on medicaid alone last year. HEAD OUT OF ***

Medicaid does not equal welfare.

Where as it's not a bad idea, I can't support this measure at this time as Florida Gov. Rick Scott is in the health care business, and guess who gets to give the tests, that's right, Rick's companies.

This is the same jackass who's company ripped off medicare and medicaid for billions, when questioned in court about it plead the 5th 60 something time and then recieved record fines from the government....and the idiots in Florida still elected this guy.

As long as the drug tests are deducted from their benefits. If it's coming from tax money, I have no support for this.

Regardless of Governor Scott's past associations and transgressions in the healthcare industry, that doesn't invalidate the importance or potential positive societal impact of this legislation.

I won't defend Governor Scott. I think he's suspect, like most politicians. However, this legislation had to be written and approved by the State legislature before it ever hit Scott's desk for a signature. And it will be subject to review by the Florida Supreme Court, too. So, frowning upon the new law just because the governor supports it is a folly.

Regarding urine drug screening tests: when a government issues a urine drug screening test, you piss in a sterile cup in a large stall that is empty except for the toilet. You must leave the door open and you are watched throughout the entire process by a lab employee. You are not allowed to flush or touch the toilet.
So, if you're laughing at this legislation thinking "loldrug tests", then you're dead wrong.

Also, Welfare and Medicaid are NOT the same thing.

Medicaid is a government-funded form of health insurance for low-income minors and persons with disabilities that do not have other medical insurance or the financial means to acquire other medical insurance. Medicaid funds are used to pay healthcare providers who are willing to accept such client/patients. Poverty alone does not qualify someone for Medicaid, and Medicaid funds can not be used for housing (except institutionalized housing for the elderly or disabled; e.g. nursing home), clothes, or food.

Welfare, more properly known as TANF in the USA, provides financial aid to low-income families, which may (until now) be used to buy anything, as long as the individual continues to meet the eligibility requirements of the program. In theory, the program is designed to prevent children of single parents and low-income parents from becoming neglected (malnutrition, etc.). However, it's widely-accepted that SOME TANF recipients abuse the system in order to support drug addiction.

Please do not lump Medicaid and Welfare into the same boat and criticize them as if they are identical or synonymous. If you do, your opinions on the matter are ill-informed and therefore mostly irrelevant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

This will have absolutely no effect on the number of drug users. If you're addicted to drugs and need welfare, you'll find urine from somewhere.

It floors me that anyone, no matter how conservative, could fail to see that some good bud every now and then would be a good thing for the country.

Unless they starve. But yeah, they would more likely find a way around it.

What the heck does a Straw Man fallacy have to do with the commentary in my previous post here?
Perhaps you didn't read my post at all (most likely). You can't fake or fudge a urine test when you're in an open stall with a professional lab technician watching the urine stream out of your body.
"Some good bud" is not a good thing for the country, as a whole. It may be good for some certain individuals, but even that is debatable. Regardless, I'm fairly certain the new drug screening in Florida is designed to prevent cocaine, meth, heroin, and crack users from receiving Welfare eligibility. Those drugs have a far more severe impact on society (underweight babies, unwanted babies, associated gang-related crime, associated sex crimes, etc.) than marijuana ever could. That said, marijuana users will have to (figuratively) pay the price along with the more illicit drug users.

If you live in Florida and want to do drugs, you're gonna have to get a source of income other than Welfare. Boo hoo.

Actually you can.. Wizzinators and other people's urine isn't the only way to 'piss clean'.

I have to agree with this. I just visited my sister who smokes weed and this was between the first and the 5th. There was no food in their home. There was supposed to be food in the house. My nephew who was supposed to benefit from this was scrounging the streets and begging for money to buy something to eat. She sells her food stamps for RL money for like a ratio of 4 food stamps to one dollar. I love her but it sickens me.

I see people put more effort into finding out who has that "good" than finding work. Lots of time wasted obsessing over weed and who has it rather than work and who has it.