Welfare Recipients Drug Tested

There has been an ongoing controversy as to whether welfare recipients should have to have drug testing done. Drug testing will ensure that recipients will not abuse the money they’re given by the government. Having people on welfare take drug test is advantageous because it could save the system money, it would help social workers identify children who are around drug abuse, and it would deter people from purchasing and using illegal drugs; however, it does have a downside such as people who are on prescription medication will show false positives, it can be an invasion of privacy and drug testing can take hundreds and even thousands of dollars to administer.

Drug testing the people on welfare is beneficial because those who are on drugs would no longer receive welfare allowing the system to save money. (Carpenter 1) With more than billions of dollars of government funds possibly ending up in the wrong places or spent treating drug habits, the least that can be done is to make sure money is being put in the right hands. “Every dollar that is fed to a welfare recipient’s drug habit is a dollar lost to a family that would have spent it on needed items.” (Vitter 2) Taxpayers money should not be spent to treat drug habits. (1) Some states are having to tighten welfare eligibility to deal with limited state budgets. drug testing would better yet inform the government who is abusing the system. Drug testing can use up to hundreds or possibly thousands a month wasted on drugs, not only is it dangerous for their well being, but it does harm to the economy as we build up further and further into debt. Once one state passes a law to drug test it sends a message to other states and makes sense for other states to pass the same law. this...

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...on drug testing. With so many people getting involved with this situation this will assure the governments decision. Now its up to government officials to make the correct decision and forget about drug testing welfare recipients.

Works Cited

Carpenter, Rachel. Should Welfare or Public Assistance Recipients Be Drug Tested? 28 Apr. 2010.

Web. 8 Jan. 2014.

Magoon, Kekla. The Welfare Debate. Edina: ABDO Publishing Company. 2009. Print.

Should Welfare Recipients Be Tested for Drugs? U.S News & World Report. 2014: Pgs 1-2.

Magazine.

Vitter, David. Should Welfare Recipients Be Tested for Drugs? 15 Dec. 2011. Web. 15 Jan. 2014.

Walters, Jonathan. Should Welfare Recipients Be Drug Tested? 13 March 2012. Web. 8 Jan. 2014

Welfare Recipients Are Actually Most Likely White and Less Likely Than The Average American to Use Drugs. 11 Aug. 2013. Web. 15 Jan. 2014.