Drug Testing For People on Welfare Benefits Proposed

Sunday April 5, 2009

Recent reports indicate that at least 8 states are considering introducing drug testing for people receiving benefits such as food stamps.

There are several problems with this idea:

There is a strong relationship between poverty, homelessness and substance use. Targeting welfare recipients will exclude those most in need of basic financial support from receiving it. As a result, we will see more people living on the streets, which doesn't help anyone.

People most often become addicted to substances when they are under stress, for example, if they have just lost their job. Targeting people at this vulnerable time is likely to worsen their stress and related problems.

The whole point of food stamps is that it isn't cash, so it can't be spent on things like cigarettes, alcohol and drugs. Taking away food stamps means that there is no insurance that people who need it will get even a minimal amount of food. This is likely to increase the incidence of malnutrition, which alcohol and drug users are more vulnerable to anyway.

Drug testing is extremely expensive, and is open to abuse and inaccuracy. Use of drug testing in this context is more wasteful of tax dollars than providing food stamps to hungry people.

Drug testing is unlikely to deter people from using drugs, because of the nature of addiction. It isn't easy to just quit. They are more likely to be put off applying for the benefits they need, out of fear of legal ramifications.

I'm not against drug testing in appropriate contexts. For example, I worked in an addictions program where we regularly did random drug testing on the participants in the abstinence-based portion of the program, which worked extremely well for giving people an incentive to stay clean. However, these people understood that the testing process was designed to support their recovery process, not to catch them out.

I don't think drug testing per se would be a bad thing for welfare recipients if it was genuinely in their best interests. For example, if those identified as having taken drugs were offered incentives, support and counseling, and if necessary, a place in a treatment program, it could be an opportunity for them to turn their lives around. Their children would also have to be appropriately supported.

However, I don't believe that is the intention of this proposal. It looks to me like another excuse to blame drug users for their own, and society's difficulties. Otherwise, why wouldn't other illegal activities, or health problems be addressed? These are just as relevant to the argument of drug testing being used by employment recruiters, yet I don't see general health screening or criminal background checks being proposed for welfare recipients.

If it is adopted, I predict it will worsen the very problems it is intended to address.