States Consider Drug Tests for Welfare Recipients.
"Lawmakers in at least eight states 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 some people from seeking financial aid and making already 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. But 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 Viginia Legislature who has created a Web site — notwithmytaxdollars.com — that bears a bobble-headed likeness of himself advocating this position. "If so many jobs require random drug tests these days, why not these benefits?"
Why not, indeed? We all know that beggars shouldn't be choosers as to the conditions of their handouts - unless those welfare recipients have pandering ACLU entitlement lawyers seeking to obligate themselves further into the public coffers on their behalf.
