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More Tie Public Aid To Drug Tests

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The Associated Press

Published: March 27, 2009

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Want government assistance? Just say no to drugs.

Lawmakers in at least eight states, including Florida, want recipients of food stamps, unemployment benefits or welfare to submit to random drug testing.

The effort comes as more Americans turn to these safety nets to ride out the recession. Poverty and civil liberties advocates fear the strategy could backfire, discouraging people from seeking help and making desperate situations worse.

Those in favor of the drug tests say they are motivated out of a concern for their constituents' health and ability to put themselves on more solid financial footing once the economy rebounds. Proponents concede they also want to send a message: You don't get something for nothing.

"Nobody's being forced into these assistance programs," said Craig Blair, a Republican in the West Virginia Legislature who has created a Web site - notwithmytaxdollars.com - that features a bobble-headed likeness of him advocating this position. "If so many jobs require random drug tests these days, why not these benefits?"

Blair is proposing the most comprehensive measure in the country. It would apply to anyone applying for food stamps, unemployment compensation or the federal programs usually known as welfare: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; and Women, Infants and Children.

Lawmakers in other states are offering similar but more modest proposals.

On Wednesday, the Kansas House of Representatives approved a measure, which now goes to the state Senate, mandating drug testing for the 14,000 or so people getting cash assistance from the state. In February, the Oklahoma Senate unanimously passed a measure that would require drug testing as a condition of receiving temporary assistance benefits, and similar bills have been introduced in Missouri and Hawaii.

In Florida, Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, has proposed a bill that would require random drug testing of 10 percent of applicants for jobless benefits. Anyone who applies for benefits would have to agree to be tested before becoming eligible. A similar bill has been filed in the House.

A member of Minnesota's House of Representatives has a bill requiring drug tests of people who get public assistance under a state program there. An attempt in January in the Arizona Senate to establish such a law failed.

In the past, such efforts have been stymied by legal and cost concerns, said Christine Nelson, a program manager with the National Conference of State Legislatures. But states' bigger fiscal crises, and the surging demand for public assistance, could change that.

"It's an example of where you could cut costs at the expense of a segment of society that's least able to defend themselves," said Frank Crabtree, executive director of the West Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

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