Drug Tests for Welfare and Food Stamps?

Peggy Anne said:

I wouldn't want my tax dollars supporting meth addicts, and crack freaks. If they can afford to buy dope, and destroy the quality of life, why enable them to sponge on the system for decades ?

Click to expand...

Exactly. Anybody who benefits from our tax dollars should be subject to drug screening, strip searching, seizure of their personal papers, and any other unwarranted and unconstitutional intrusion we can think of. Time to start cracking down on:

School children
Students at public universities
People trying to enter publicly-funded museums
Medicare recipients
Social security recipients
People who call the fire department for assistance
Anybody who drives on public roads

It doesn't matter how much it costs to do the drug tests or whether it accomplishes anything useful. The important thing is to show our contempt for our fellow citizens and express how angry we are about paying taxes, even if that expression results in greater government spending.

Don't mind drug tests. Bankers and politicians should be dope tested.

Most proponents of this idea use their own job as justification. If your own employer requires a drug test then why not the government? But a company can only test it's own employees, not it's customers. The 4th Amendment to the Constitution does not apply to private entities or individuals, it is specifically to protect us from the government. Government progams and services are so pervasive that they could justify testing everyone if it weren't for the 4th Amendment.

While I support the legalization of marijuana and other soft drugs, if they're in need of assistance they shouldn't be spending their money on such things anyway.

Why should poor people be allowed to spend tax payers money, given to them at a time of need, on drugs? It's scandalous. If they need handouts then any drugs, legal or otherwise are a no-no, as is cable TV, new clothes, meat, a car (mothball it until they come off benefits) or any other non-staple item. Give them a food package and travel vouchers, support and education instead. Then they can't blow the weekly dole cheque on meth or cider.

Bloomdido said:

Why should poor people be allowed to spend tax payers money, given to them at a time of need, on drugs? It's scandalous. If they need handouts then any drugs, legal or otherwise are a no-no,

Click to expand...

Legal drugs are a no-no? What if someone needs painkillers following an operation?

as is cable TV,

Click to expand...

Yes, god forbid that poor people should have entertainment.

new clothes,

Click to expand...

Often necessary for a job search.

meat

Click to expand...

A cheap and convenient source of protein, which enables people to work harder.

, a car (mothball it until they come off benefits)

Click to expand...

Having a car is a prerequisite for many jobs. Why limit their ability to apply for a delivery position?

or any other non-staple item. Give them a food package and travel vouchers, support and education instead. Then they can't blow the weekly dole cheque on meth or cider.

Click to expand...

I love this automatic assumption that it's such a widespread problem that we should enact punitive measures against those who are simply trying to get by. This goes beyond reasonable limitations into unwarranted government intrusion into one's private affairs.

stephenw said:

Don't mind drug tests. Bankers and politicians should be dope tested.

Click to expand...

I'd be in favour of that, but only if it were the ones who haven't been smoking dope who get sacked.

Father Heathen said:

While I support the legalization of marijuana and other soft drugs, if they're in need of assistance they shouldn't be spending their money on such things anyway.

Click to expand...

How do you know they're spending money on it? Maybe they're doing a bit of dealing to supplement the food stamps.

Bloomdido said:

Give them a food package and travel vouchers, support and education instead. Then they can't blow the weekly dole cheque on meth or cider.

Click to expand...

I was in favor of this too, but then I realized, if you give them "food only" vouchers, that just frees up other money they have for other things, so it doesn't really do what it is intended to do, and just needlessly complicates the system.

That said, I used to work with a lady who was on government assistence to help with feeding her children. I am all for such programs. However, she did two things that rather irked me: 1) she limited her hours at work purposefully to stay under a certain amount in order to maximize her aid. 2) she got her nails done once every week.

Alceste said:

How do you know they're spending money on it? Maybe they're doing a bit of dealing to supplement the food stamps.

Click to expand...

Then they would be selling it and not using it. Every bit they used themselves could've instead been sold to get some of the money they needed.

Kathryn said:

You can't mandate morality.

Click to expand...

Perhaps not.
But you can get it voted into law...Prop 8



EDIT:
I agree with everything else, I just wanted to point out that there are groups who do in fact think they can mandate their morality and force it down everyones throat.

Peggy Anne said:

I wouldn't want my tax dollars supporting meth addicts, and crack freaks. If they can afford to buy dope, and destroy the quality of life, why enable them to sponge on the system for decades ?

Click to expand...

Good.
Then mandatory drug tests for all politicians.

Dreamwolf said:

I think the argument is that some people (hopefully a very few) are already making that choice already and the money is going to drugs.

Click to expand...

I agree.
However, I do not see any precedent for it, and as Kathryn states:

Dreamwolf said:

We do need to remember though it is not just people with kids that are on welfare and get food stamps, my elderly grandmother was on food stamps for years with no one else to take care of, thankfully she was not on drugs - other than the bajillion that were prescribed for her.

Click to expand...

Also true.
I wonder how many people would lose benefits because their prescription drugs gave them a positive result? Or because they are eating health foods they return a positive result.

So, it's ok for a welfare mother to smoke crack in the waiting room ? After all, we don't want to violate her rights. How about some old dude chuggin' down a six pack, belching loudly, and yelling "Where's my bag o free (belch burp) food ?"

Peggy Anne said:

So, it's ok for a welfare mother to smoke crack in the waiting room ? After all, we don't want to violate her rights. How about some old dude chuggin' down a six pack, belching loudly, and yelling "Where's my bag o free (belch burp) food ?"

Click to expand...

Strawman.

Peggy Anne said:

So, it's ok for a welfare mother to smoke crack in the waiting room ? After all, we don't want to violate her rights. How about some old dude chuggin' down a six pack, belching loudly, and yelling "Where's my bag o free (belch burp) food ?"

Click to expand...

relevance?

Peggy Anne said:

So, it's ok for a welfare mother to smoke crack in the waiting room ? After all, we don't want to violate her rights. How about some old dude chuggin' down a six pack, belching loudly, and yelling "Where's my bag o free (belch burp) food ?"

Click to expand...

It's interesting you've resorted to the fallacy of a strawman argument, Peggy Anne. Is this because there are no good, logical reasons for your position?

Sunstone said:

I think it would set a bad precedent that could be extended to, say, drug tests for other government benefits. Besides, I don't see it as contributing to a solution to the drug problem.

Click to expand...

Ah, but everybody knows that only poor people use drugs, Sunstone! /sarcasm

Seriously, the mindset that is completely serious about the idea of drug testing for qualification for welfare/food-stamps/government support also tends to stereotype poor people as all being poor because they spent all of their money on pot/crack cocaine/heroin/meth/x etc. Or that the poor are all lazy. The drug testing mindset also tends to support things like harsher sentences for some drug possession (like crack cocaine which tends to have a lower street value (I think) and is disproportionately found in inner cities vice the 'burbs where they get the good powdered stuff).

Do I believe that no one on government assistance has a drug problem? No. Do I think that adding yet another indignity and humiliation to the process of getting assistance is justified because there might be some people doing drugs? NO. Do I think that the untold billions of dollars spent on the "war on drugs" was a colossal waste of money that would have been better spent developing sustainable technologies and lessening the worlds dependence on finite fossil fuel resources, or finding a cure for any number of diseases, or freaking colonizing the solar system? Yes!! /rant

Whew, needed to get that off my chest. Personally, I think that the approach a "third world" nation like Mexico has recently taken is a good one. Rehab, not prison is a more appropriate response I think.

Mestemia said:

Perhaps not.
But you can get it voted into law...Prop 8



EDIT:
I agree with everything else, I just wanted to point out that there are groups who do in fact think they can mandate their morality and force it down everyones throat.

Click to expand...

Oh, I know - they drive me crazy too.

Peggy Anne said:

So, it's ok for a welfare mother to smoke crack in the waiting room ? After all, we don't want to violate her rights. How about some old dude chuggin' down a six pack, belching loudly, and yelling "Where's my bag o free (belch burp) food ?"

Click to expand...

No, Peggy, it's NOT ok and I believe in most countries anyone smoking crack in a waiting room would be ARRESTED.

The old dude chuggin' down a six pack, belching loudly and yelling "Where's my bag o free (belch burp) food?" may be Vietnam veteran - or someone who worked and paid taxes for 30 years before he was disabled in an industrial accident - should he lose his benefits just because he drinks?