Preview

Drug Testing Government Assistance Recipients Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
969 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Drug Testing Government Assistance Recipients Essay
Drug Testing Government Assistance Recipients

All over the United States Americans are using government assistance money to buy drugs. It has become a major issue in the past years. Americans have figured out how to abuse the system. They are taking the governments money and are fueling their drug addictions. In order to fix this states across the United States have already started drug testing their applicant's. Some states disagree because they believe it is stereotyping government assistance applicants. Even though many jobs also require drug test. Americans in the United States who need financial assistance from the government, should be subjected to a monthly drug test.
“Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment relief, public
…show more content…
Drug testing government assistance recipients is not being done just to deny you from receiving financial aid. It is to see who needs extra help. On the television show “The Doctors” Jennifer Berman and Travis Lane
Stork discussed how whenever a person fails a drug test they are required to get help for their addiction before applying again. So drug testing is not necessarily just too keep them from getting money. It is about helping them overcome their addictions so they can become a productive member of society. Americans who want to receive financial aid from the government should be drug tested as a condition of eligibility. If all applicants are drug tested it will weed out the people who want to be on it for the wrong reasons. It will also help applicants who fail by providing them with help to overcome their addictions. It will make sure that taxpayers money only goes to people who are truly in need. All along financial help from the government was not meant to be permanent. It also is not to provide people with money to buy drugs. It was meant to help needy Americans get back on their feet and to return as functioning members of

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ok, let's all look at this as realistically as we can; if just 1 person failed a drug test for the welfare, that's a whole extra few hundred dollars per month that our government can save, and that's only for 1 person! A typical drug test cost around $10 for the cheaper ones. That's store price too, that's not considering what government contracter bulk…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Florida Governor Rick Scott made plans to test all welfare recipients to see if they are using drugs before they can receive payments is hardly saving the state any money, according to recent reports. At $30 per test, the state paid $28,800 in drug test reimbursements (960 reimbursements at $30 each, since about 2 percent also didn’t finish the application process) for those who did pass, while saving themselves about $66,000 in payments that did not have to be made for the year to those applicants that didn’t make it through for one reason or another (applicants receive $138 a month, or $1,656 per year).…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In order meet eligibility requirements, potential employees must submit to the testing and declare that they will maintain a drug free status by joining the random pool that can be tested at any time during employment. Since this is becoming the norm when seeking employment, should those individuals who have not found employment but seek government assistance be subject to the same types of drug testing?…

    • 826 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    There is much debate regarding this issue. Supporters of requiring drug tests for welfare applicants believe that there will be many people deterred from applying due to knowing they will not pass. They also believe that some will fail the drug tests. These supporters believe this number of people will be so large that there will be a significant decrease in welfare spending. Other supporters have said “substance abuse is a prominent barrier preventing people from making the necessary transition from governmental dependence to self-reliance.”(Targeted News Service) Opponents have said this is a direct violation of our constitutional rights as American citizens. Some have even said it is not right to assume that just because people are poor, they drug users. Other opposers of welfare drug testing have argued that it will not save money at…

    • 1822 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Drug testing has its pros and cons. One pro is that it would immediately take off any drug users who could use the money for drugs or other illegal substances; adding to that, it would give people the motivation to stay off drugs for themselves and their families if they want to still receive government benefits. Some people look at it like, if people are getting jobs have to get drug tested, why don’t the people receiving welfare have to?”(HRF, 2014). One of the cons for drug testing is that people feel like it is discrimination against the poor. The poor believe that higher up people who are considered rich aren’t required to take a drug test (HRF,…

    • 1965 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    We live in an age of laziness, and by that I mean people take the easy way out more often than they should. Now that being said, finding the easy way to do something is not always a bad thing. The case of Americans fraudulently receiving welfare checks is an example of the laziness I am discussing. As a society, we need to make this accepted practice an unaccepted practice. We need to stand up and make the process of applying and receiving these benefits more stringent than they currently are. I believe through use of mandatory random drug testing, progress monitoring, on- going physical and mental examinations, we can discourage the continued misuse of these funds.…

    • 704 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Drug testing welfare recipients has been a major topic across the United States for a few years now. Many argue that if working class people are subject to a test prior to hire or randomly during the length of employment, why should those that don’t have to work for money not have the same treatment? Invasion of privacy is a huge disadvantage on the government’s part, yes it is free money but that doesn’t entitle anyone, even government, to control every aspect of your life or hold it constantly over a person’s head until they feel guilt or just flat decline assistance. Let’s ask ourselves just one question; if you went to the bank for a car loan, being this is a necessity for everyday living to own, how would you feel if they asked you to take a drug test prior to lending you the money? I feel many peoples’ tune would change drastically.…

    • 1433 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The need for welfare among society today has become increasingly large. Although the need for welfare is rapidly increasing, so is the use of drugs. This is posing as a major problem for the welfare programs. Welfare programs are now trying to put into place a new qualification where any possible recipients of welfare are required to take a drug test. For the most part, welfare recipients respect the requirements of their contract with the agency. The drug testing will just be used to eliminate any persons taking advantage of the welfare program for inappropriate use and to ensure that the welfare will go to the people who are actually in need of it. While many are more than willing to take the drug tests, there are also quite a few who are very reluctant toward this new qualification. In order to decide whether or not drug testing is a logical and fair requirement, all the pros and cons need to be laid out on the table.…

    • 1226 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Public Assistance is government aid to needy, aged, or disabled persons and to dependent children (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). All public assistance applicants should be required to take a mandatory drug test before they can qualify to receive any form of public assistance. Drug tests can detect a number of different illegal substances like, marijuana, steroids, amphetamines, cocaine, PCP, and opiates. “More than 22 million Americans age 12 and older - nearly 9% of the U.S. population - use illegal drugs, according to the government’s 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health”(CNN). One should never feel they are entitled to public assistance, it should be felt as more of a privilege. Sadly, in the last ten years, our economy has unfortunately depreciated rapidly. The economy is so bad at this point, that it can be very difficult to find employment. For some, it can be impossible, especially if uneducated. The result is that more people, now than ever, are applying for public assistance. The amount of public assistance being paid for food stamps, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is so high, it is imperative that we find a way to fix this situation to prevent so many people from taking advantage of something others in this world so desperately need and rely on to survive, not to feed their addictions.…

    • 1800 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    If the working class has to be drug tested to make their money, those receiving assistance should be drug tested to receive their check. Tax payers should not have to pay for some random person’s drug habit and if people chose to be foolish and want to do drugs they should get a job to support their bad habit. As a result, drug testing welfare recipients would reveal the people who are wasting the tax payer’s money.…

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Welfare Persuasive Speech

    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages

    a. There is a growing movement to make sure those on general welfare aren’t also on drugs. In these hard economic times, voters don’t want their tax dollars wasted on fueling the habits of junkies. Americans take a hard line on this dual habit. In a poll that was taken in July of 2011, fifty-three percent believe all…

    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The uprising of unemployment and welfare is exceeding previous predictions and not many states are keeping up with them. Drug testing for welfare is unconstitutional and unfair because not everyone abuses the system. Not everyone uses the money they get for drugs. Some families really need the money while others use it for their own selfish needs instead of the needs of their families. Drug testing only leads to spending more money than its worth. An editorial in a USA Today article took a hard look at the recent push to drug-test applicants for public assistance across the country. They agreed that, "Until states can come up with a smarter way to ferret out the abusers while protecting children, the testing craze will be just another program that appeals to stereotypes in hard economic times while producing little value in the real world." As USA Today argues, there 's little evidence that programs to drug-test applicants and recipients of benefits are necessary in places where these programs have been implemented, few people have tested positive. And if the goal is to save states money, they fail on that count too states save very little compared to the upfront costs of implementing testing programs. Not to mention, these programs perpetuate the inaccurate notion that poor people use drugs more than others and single them out for unconstitutional privacy violations. Sadly about 20 states have implemented drug testing for welfare but they are gradually realizing how wasteful and unfair it really is so they are starting to take away the tests.…

    • 656 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    No, I do not think that welfare recipients should have to be drug tested in order to receive assistance. People that are for drug testing welfare recipients feel like it is not fair that they have to be drug tested in order to maintain a job but people receiving “free money” don’t have to be tested. I feel like they need to think beyond the fairness and think about more important things. It is unconstitutional, could cause children to suffer, and it will cost tax payers even more money.…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Should welfare recipients be drug tested in order for them to receive their food stamps or government assisted checks? With hopefully your answer being yes, many people in the United states believe the thought of forcing a drug test on a person applying for welfare to be completely unconstitutional. There are currently 12,800, 000 Americans on welfare in the United States today. The United States of America currently spends 131.9 billion dollars a year annually on welfare recipients. Yes, those are actual numbers based on a study of the department of commerce. With numbers like that, it’s no surprise the government financial system is the way it is today. The question is, should welfare recipients be randomly drug tested on order for them to receive their government assisted checks and food stamps? And is the thought of random drug testing unconstitutional?…

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The United States welfare system is corrupt. This problem is known by taxpayers all too well. Welfare is a very helpful system to those less fortunate; however, it has been directed away from what its original purpose was and is now available to most anyone. Too many individuals take the benefits given to them and unfairly use them. If certain regulations were to be set in place, many abusers of the system would stop taking advantage. Drug testing should be required in order to receive welfare benefits because drug testing would aid in stopping drug use, because able-bodied recipients would be pushed to look for jobs, and because most working citizens are required to take drug tests in order to work.…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays