Should Welfare Recipents be drug tested

There are many different things that can be said about the subject of drug testing welfare recipients. It can be said that it is unfair, and that may be true. It can also be said that it is justifiable, and this may also be true. In this paper I plan to prove that drug testing welfare recipients is unconstitutional, as well as costly to the state administering such test. Testing the recipients can be considered stereotypical and very demeaning. While making sure welfare funds are used properly, it is too costly and does not provide adequate results. In the past ten years drug testing welfare recipients has been a huge issue. While most people are all for it, there are just as many people if not more that are against it. While it may be true that some welfare recipients are doing drugs, all of them are not. It can and will be proven that drug testing these recipients is a waste of time and tax payers’ money.

Yes, yours and my hard earned tax dollars are and will be spent on welfare recipients who may or may not be using drugs. Think for a second…what else can my tax dollars be used for? Possible improving badly paved streets. How about fixing that run down playground with the overgrown grass? Maybe the money can even be used toward the remodeling the library of a school. While other states such as Florida have tried testing and been semi-successful other state such as New Hampshire attempt turned out differently. According to Concord Monitor (2013) “while the drug testing was in place there, only 2.6 percent of the applicants failed the test. And the money spent on the testing exceeded the money saved in denied benefits.”

This turned out to be a very costly effort for them. The United States 4th amendment states “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” This amendment in itself says that you cannot single out a certain of people unless you have just cause or warrant to do so. Scenario: In a city that has 100 people where all 100 people are on welfare. Within that 100 people 15 of those residents are drug abusers, is it feasible to test everyone? There is no definite way to determine who is on drugs and who is not on drugs. As stated in the quote from Concord Monitor while recipients were tested only a small percent tested positive for drugs.

Most times people try to live within their means. Just because a person lives within a certain area does not make them just like their neighbors. Everyone who lives in a gated community is not a doctor, lawyer, or judge. The same can be said about someone who lives in the “ghetto”. Everyone who lives in the ghetto is not a criminal, drug dealer or user. By drug testing welfare recipients we stereotype these people into a certain class. As previously stated it also not 100 percent effective. It also discusses the results of similar programs that were presented in past years that have failed, Fullwood, R. (2011, Jun). To the mother that is on welfare because she has three kids and works fourteen days to support, how does she feel when she has to miss work to take a drug test because someone else is abusing the system? Demeaning and belittled is the answer. She works hard for her children, but cannot make ends meet and welfare helps her out where she falls short.