Should those on welfare or any form of government assistance be able to pass a urine test?

Yes they should and many states have now enacted drug testing laws...if those that work are required to be drug tested then those receiving public assistance should be, too.

Wouldn't that make welfare even more expensive for taxpayers? Drug testing isn't free (or foolproof). Besides, welfare doesn't pay well enough to pay for street drugs. Drugs are expensive and are usually paid for with illegal forms of income (dealing, theft, prostitution, etc.). Of course then taxpayers have to pay for more law enforcement which costs at least as much as welfare when you consider how much it costs to keep someone in prison (in some states over $30K a year).

Of course there is also the problem of children whose parents are on welfare. It wouldn't do to let them starve because their parents failed a drug test, but to take all the children away from their parents and place them in state homes would be very expensive and in many cases cruel.

I guess if there were enough living wage jobs we could do away with many types of government assistance, but there aren't enough jobs available.

Looks like there are no humane solutions that don't ultimately cost the taxpayers a lot of money. I suppose we could legalize drugs and bring the cost down, but I have reservations about legalizing hard drugs and making them cheap and easily available. Maybe we should legalize marijuana and use tax revenue from marijuana sales to enforce prohibition of hard drugs so they wouldn't be available.

Yes. And dont think that children of those who use drugs and get government assistance arent already going hungry. Go to any grocery store and you will be approached by people offering to buy your groceries for you using their food stamp card for whatever cash you have on hand. What needs to happen is if they test positive for drugs offer them help and give them 30 days to get clean or lose not only their assistance but their kids too. I dont want to see anyone go hungry or homeless but if they continue to get the aid they are being enabled to continue with their drug abuse.

Anybody can cheat a drug test and those who do drugs habitually often know more about drug tests than those who only smoke pot once in a blue moon and suddenly have to take a test. I've cheated at least 15 drug tests in my life with the 22 jobs I've worked. I will always do drugs, and I will always get the job when I need one because I'm good at interviewing, so a drug test is nothing to me. We have the internet nowadays, the information is widely available and word of mouth amongst those who do drugs is even more powerful. So basically, the hardcore druggies will get their money, while some poor sucker who smokes pot once in a while will suffer along with their children.

Hell yes. Congress, Soldiers, Police, FBI/CIA/IRS, any Government position or employee, even the Post Office.

At the State level as well, especially teachers, professors ... anyone who receives taxpayer money.

ACORN first.

I'm not worried, are you?

You would have to have 'reasonable cause' to request a drug test. Americans cannot be personally violated in their plight of requesting assistance for mere survival.

American citizens are free from search and seizure.

Froghead, once the USA becomes a 3rd world employer, via marxist programs, I put a bullet in my own head. I'll be dead before the USA government even gets a chance to convert me to the marxist party--the rest of you can become communists til your heart is content, but I will not live like a communist even when it is imposed by the USA government social policy. I am a traditional American and I will die that way.

Live free or die. God Bless the once free America.

Froghead post:

"Yes!!! Great Idea and if you are not disabled you should have to show up at a central place where buses take you out to work jobs that Americans supposedly don't want to do.

This way they are earning their money, we can send illegals home without raising the cost of our retail goods or leaving employers without workers and people on welfare will hate working those jobs and either stop getting welfare or get a real job and get off welfare"

One more thing:

I dont use drugs but I am very familiar with the hard road a person has when they try to recover from drug addiction. The last thing they need is some do-gooder, self rightgeous hippocrite trying to manage everything they do in a day.

This is why previous to the Clinton adminstration the public was not involved with the private matters of persons lives who were on welfare. More people have died as a result of these programs over the last 15 years, including adults as well as children. You damned socialists harrass people to the point they think their life is worth nothing--false Christians. It's genocide.

Your idea is proposterous and completely inconducive to assisting populations that need real assistance to recover in their lives.

Froghead,

There is nothing wrong with working for money, there is something wrong with working for peanuts in a Capitalist system.

There are times when persons are not able to find work or actually need time off for health reasons--that is resolved with all rights of privacy. Welfare has been made available to get people on their feet--they will never get on their feet with low paying jobs or government maximum pay rates.

For a sherff's deputy who should be able to understand the hardships human beings go through--you should lose your own job!

No BUT they should be doing work for their money such as cleaning parking lots, mowing lawns, shoveling snow, working for the HIGHLY tax paid Highway Dept, or litter patrol. Something to earn what they are given.

It just doesn't make sense to me to have people PAID from our tax payer money to do meaningless Governmental jobs and ALSO pay people to sit around on their porches and do NOTHING..

Put ALL people who are deemed capable of working to work doing meaningless labor for the tax payers and WATCH how fast they will magically be able to find an EASIER job...

I have quite a few jobs around here that I would love to have someone who is gaining from my tax dollar do that would keep them busy.. I can only imagine that MOST working Tax Payers do too.... Wouldn't it be nice to get something for the taxes we pay rather then just giving it away to the Lazy so they can sit around drink beer and get high all day..

Absolutely! As a professional in the health care field, I have no problem with it in my job. I would think that patients and their families would feel more at ease knowing there nurse, doctor and others are not high on drugs.

I Think it would be reassuring to know our taxes are not going for drugs either.

MR

Alcohol should be included. It's considered a drug. It's tested for in work related tests. I would doubt that you or any one in congress could pass.

Yes sir and lets also include public officials like POTUS and Congress

Yes!!! Great Idea and if you are not disabled you should have to show up at a central place where buses take you out to work jobs that Americans supposedly don't want to do.

This way they are earning their money, we can send illegals home without raising the cost of our retail goods or leaving employers without workers and people on welfare will hate working those jobs and either stop getting welfare or get a real job and get off welfare

TOWWDOT: you know nothing of the law, people who want CDL license can be required to have drug testing to get that rating, As long as they are given the option not to take the drug test it is not forced, their option not to take it is to decline welfare. ever heard of random drug testing? random suggests no reason and random drug testing is done all the time.

How is is marxist to say if someone wants money they should work for it. America is founded on individuals making it on their own, while we help people who are in need it is meant to be temporary and should come with strings attached.

it would free up money for programs that help people who really need it and make the people cheating the system misusing the money to find someone else to support them

ADDITION: for those who said the money is more for the kids, are you kidding!? have you seen most of the people on welfare, I have when working as a Sheriff's Deputy. People sell their food stamp link card money for 50 cents on the dollar so they can spend it on booze and other things, they wear clothes the average workin g person cant afford because they are most likely living in assisted or free housing. They have no intentions of getting off welfare because they have it too easy.

This ruins it for the people who truley needs it and have no other options.

For the one who said "what do you want people not to eat" its not like he is asking food to be taken away he is saying you souldnt be spending money on drugs if someone else is paying for your living expenses. they can have welfare if they don't do drugs it is their choice. would you give money to a poor friend if he said he didn't have money for food but after you gave it to him he spent it on drugs? would you give him the money the next time he asked?