Quote:
Originally Posted by woj
If you are able to function normally, have a job, are able to support yourself, etc, then no one should care if you smoke a little weed or do a line or 2 of coke on the weekends...
... but the question in this thread is not that, it is: what if you can not support yourself? Should the taxpayer pay for someone's drug habit? Isn't helping someone with a destructive drug habit re-enter the workforce a no-brainer? and isn't first step to accomplishing that identifying those people through drug testing?
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Identifying them and helping them are two different things.
From a moral standpoint, I have no problem drug testing people who are on welfare. However, I am opposed to doing something just for the sake of doing it and making a few people feel better if it isn't very effective. My understanding is that there are seven states that already drug test welfare recipients and in six of them the result is that less than 1% tested positive. Maybe doing a random drug test would yield higher results, maybe not. To me, the only reason to do this would be to help those people get off the drugs so I would say if someone on welfare tests positive for drugs they should immediately be put in rehab. If they don't want rehab or they don't want to work to get off drugs, fine, they just don't get welfare. If they want to try to make their lives better we should be willing to help them.
My understanding is that as it is now those on welfare that test positive are kicking off welfare. With a drug problem and no means of support you know how this story ends, with them in jail. We end up paying for them one way or another so we might as well try to help them make positive changes in their lives.