Oklahoma lawmaker wants welfare drug testing

[BBatesokc]

DOkla http://newsok.com/article/3591950#disqus_thread

I say Hallelujah!

[FRISKY]

Good idea, but they add so many loopholes it becomes meaningless.

[MustangGT]

Test them and if positive even once it is a lifetime of NO MORE FREEBIES.

[Achilleslastand]

Where would the money for all these drug tests come from?
I guess the applicant would have to choose between welfare as a way of life or drugs as a way of life.....decisions decisions.

[Thunder]

He says drug testing would be mandatory and that applicants who test positive for controlled substances would be disqualified from the program for one year, unless they choose to seek treatment.

This makes me sad. That lawmaker will be hearing from me about this. Hydrocondone is a controlled substance in which I regularly shove down my throat. If this law passes and the test on me comes back positive, look for me on KOCO's news.

[dmoor82]

This makes me sad. That lawmaker will be hearing from me about this. Hydrocondone is a controlled substance in which I regularly shove down my throat. If this law passes and the test on me comes back positive, look for me on KOCO's news.

Thunder, that's only if you DONT have a prescription and thats assuming your on welfare!

[betts]

Seriously? Sounds like a great new bureaucracy. Personally, if I'm going to spend more money for welfare recipients, I'd like to restart the WPA and the CCC. Let people who cannot support themselves (and aren't TRULY disabled) be given a job, even if it is cleaning up parks or building fences. Let them learn a trade so they can be proud of themselves for accomplishing something. When your life is totally miserable and you have no joy in it, drugs are appealing. People who have purpose and satisfaction in their lives and accomplishments have a lot less need for drugs. There will always be people you cannot help, but there are also people trapped in welfare who simply don't know where to start to change their lives.

Let's also spend more money making sure everyone who has the intelligence can read. If you can read, you can do anything. I'd much rather spend my money for private tutors for people who cannot read than pay some lab to test them for drugs.

[dmoor82]

I see it this way,If my hard earned tax Dollars are going to a population of Welfare receipiants who inturn use that money for drugs then YES I am all for this Drug testing,but Drug addicts almost always relapse so I think a 3 strikes type deal would be better or a reduction of benifits.Some people out there really need Welfare(Mentally disabled etc..)but some truly take advantage of tax payers and do nothing but burden us and the communities in wich they live in and inturn The Government is acting as enablers too this population!

[PennyQuilts]

Where would the money for all these drug tests come from?
I guess the applicant would have to choose between welfare as a way of life or drugs as a way of life.....decisions decisions.

They have plenty of other choices.

I don't think it is ever a good idea to subsidize drug abuse and since many of these people qualify because they have children, I feel even stronger about it.

[PennyQuilts]

Seriously? Sounds like a great new bureaucracy. Personally, if I'm going to spend more money for welfare recipients, I'd like to restart the WPA and the CCC. Let people who cannot support themselves (and aren't TRULY disabled) be given a job, even if it is cleaning up parks or building fences. Let them learn a trade so they can be proud of themselves for accomplishing something. When your life is totally miserable and you have no joy in it, drugs are appealing. People who have purpose and satisfaction in their lives and accomplishments have a lot less need for drugs. There will always be people you cannot help, but there are also people trapped in welfare who simply don't know where to start to change their lives.

Let's also spend more money making sure everyone who has the intelligence can read. If you can read, you can do anything. I'd much rather spend my money for private tutors for people who cannot read than pay some lab to test them for drugs.

I agree with a lot of what you said but my experience tells me that idle middleclass white teenagers may turn to drugs out of angst and boredom but in the hood it is pretty much a way of life. They don't do drugs because they are "miserable" - they do drugs because that is normal to them. You and I might be miserable in the hood because it is so crappy. In contrast, to the ones living there, they adapt and are just as happy or unhappy as anyone else. They might be angry due to dysfuntional families but giving them welfare doesn't change any of that.

I don't know how much you have gone to the hood but if you do, prepare to be in a different world - and that is one of the reasons I am so passionate about not giving welfare to prop up generational poverty. We may get mothers and their children to a point above a certain arbitrarily defined poverty level but in so doing, we damn those children to a life with crappy schools, violent neighborhoods and are a big part of robbing these kids of the future we would want our own kids to have. I'd rather take kids from parents who can't afford to feed them. That sounds harsh but I don't think it is. Parents who worry their kids will be taken are far more likely to straighten up and fly right. Moreover, they are less likely to bring more children into the world that they know they can't afford. It is no kindess to damn those children to living in the hood.

[dmoor82]

Where would the money for all these drug tests come from?
I guess the applicant would have to choose between welfare as a way of life or drugs as a way of life.....decisions decisions.

A Non addicted Life on Welfare if you are Healthy,still gives you an oppurtunity to better your Life and find a decent job and better your circumstances.A Drug addicted way of Life hurts You and all who Love you,there is little Hope for people who dont want Help!A One strike and your out type deal is too harsh,but a 3 strike and your out or benifit cuts is understandable.People will use drugs if there rich or poor but why should we have to pay for it?

[PennyQuilts]

A Non addicted Life on Welfare if you are Healthy,still gives you an oppurtunity to better your Life and find a decent job and better your circumstances.A Drug addicted way of Life hurts You and all who Love you,there is little Hope for people who dont want Help!A One strike and your out type deal is too harsh,but a 3 strike and your out or benifit cuts is understandable.People will use drugs if there rich or poor but why should we have to pay for it?

Agreed.

And people falling on hard times are one thing - and I think that is what most of us think of when we think welfare. Unfortunately, for a huge portion of the population, welfare is a way of life and they don't see any reason to change it. Plus, with so many families no longer marrying, more tend to become eligible for welfare even if together because mom doesn't have legal rights to the father's income. The exploding welfare ranks are the result of the bad economy, certainly - but in addition, the change in culture and weakening of the stigma of accepting public assistance has also turned the system on its head. So an unmarried couple with three kids can get welfare but their married friends with three children who live on the next block aren't eligible.

[dmoor82]

I am a registered(Moderate) Democrat and even I like this proposed law!

[rcjunkie]

Seriously? Sounds like a great new bureaucracy. Personally, if I'm going to spend more money for welfare recipients, I'd like to restart the WPA and the CCC. Let people who cannot support themselves (and aren't TRULY disabled) be given a job, even if it is cleaning up parks or building fences. Let them learn a trade so they can be proud of themselves for accomplishing something. When your life is totally miserable and you have no joy in it, drugs are appealing. People who have purpose and satisfaction in their lives and accomplishments have a lot less need for drugs. There will always be people you cannot help, but there are also people trapped in welfare who simply don't know where to start to change their lives.

Let's also spend more money making sure everyone who has the intelligence can read. If you can read, you can do anything. I'd much rather spend my money for private tutors for people who cannot read than pay some lab to test them for drugs.

But your missing the fact that the ones using/abusing drugs don't want to work or learn to read. They are happy living off the system (government).

[MustangGT]

How about telling all the people on the governemnt dole they will get no money NO MATTER WHAT. Perfect solution that will save trillions of dollars. Survival of the fittest.

[tigris]

that is great, not only will it help cut down on government spending, it will also help motivate people with substance abuse to get better

[tigris]

true, their first priority and primary motivation should be their children, but people who are addicted to drugs and/or alcohol often lose sight of whats truly important. but if you take away their money, you've taken their means to buy the drugs, and although they may resort to some other source of income, at the very least, drug dealers are not being paid with tax payer money. i like this new idea

[Bunty]

How about telling all the people on the governemnt dole they will get no money NO MATTER WHAT. Perfect solution that will save trillions of dollars. Survival of the fittest.

Then in that case, be sure to arm yourself should they come to your door begging for money and won't take no for an answer.

[Bunty]

Requiring drug testing proves how the war on drugs has failed the people. Mandatory drug testing also goes against the 4th Amendment, unless one is supposed to believe that someone wanting to be on welfare is a sign of being on drugs.

[Bunty]

Where would the money for all these drug tests come from?

If taxpayers pay for it and most tests turn up negative, then I don't see is as a worthwhile expense for taxpayers.

[HewenttoJared]

But your missing the fact that the ones using/abusing drugs don't want to work or learn to read. They are happy living off the system (government).

Their kids might.

This might be a good law, but not without a serious infrastructure for absorbing tens of thousands of kids into government care when their parents fail. Right now a child is about as well off in the hands of druggy parents as they are in government hands. DHS is horribly, horribly underfunded and the burden this law would place on them would exceed their ability to cope, even poorly. It would just grind to a halt.

[BBatesokc]

Requiring drug testing proves how the war on drugs has failed the people. Mandatory drug testing also goes against the 4th Amendment, unless one is supposed to believe that someone wanting to be on welfare is a sign of being on drugs.

I disagree. Requiring testing doesn't prove fighting drugs is a failure - it merely shows how prolific drugs are. I don't think it violates anyone's rights to have mandatory minimum requirements for something that isn't a government's obligation to begin with. If you don't want to be tested, then don't signup for welfare.

[MustangGT]

Trust they will leve my front door one way or another!!! Bunty, I will just send them round to you so you can step and fetch for them.

[USG'60]

They should test for cigarette use, too, then. Talk about a waste of taxpayers' money.

[HewenttoJared]

They should test for cigarette use, too, then. Talk about a waste of taxpayers' money.

Even better: Make cigarettes illegal--->test for them for welfare--->save billions in medical costs every year