Welfare Drug Testing Essay Example
Welfare Drug Testing
Trevor Brooks,
SOC 110
11/09/2011
In today’s America, government aid is highly depended on. The US government has spent $498 billion dollars this year on welfare alone. The state of Tennessee has an average of 250,000 residents on welfare and has $3 billion dollars this year alone. To help cut costs and help tax payers, 36 states, including Tennessee, have proposed a bill to drug test all welfare recipients. Since the beginning of the year, the welfare rate has jumped 7 percent while at the same time, the welfare funds are drying up. Tennessee funds have dropped 17.5 percent, which comes out to be about $215.3 million dollars this year. State lawmakers have proposed that if drug users on welfare are stopped, they can save a total of $77 million dollars a year, but to stop them they must start the testing now, which will cost the state more money. It would cost $2.3 million dollars a year to test a quarter of the adults receiving aid this year, then $3.8 million to test another 25 percent the following year, and $2.4 million to continue testing the entire population each year thereafter.
Brainstorming was the preferred technique selected to solve the drug usage amongst welfare recipients (University of Phoenix, 2011, pp. 253). Welfare recipients using illegal drugs is a major problem and suggestions towards correcting this issue is critical to the adults and children that are affected. Each group member took a few minutes to construe possible solutions to this epidemic. After time was called, each group member voiced his or her options. The suggestions that arose where: to test all welfare recipients for illegal drugs, randomly test those same recipients every six months, drug test only the recipients that receive cash benefits, and drug test and administer counseling for all of those who fail.
The second technique that was helpful in the process was the nominal group technique. This specific technique
Trevor Brooks,
SOC 110
11/09/2011
In today’s America, government aid is highly depended on. The US government has spent $498 billion dollars this year on welfare alone. The state of Tennessee has an average of 250,000 residents on welfare and has $3 billion dollars this year alone. To help cut costs and help tax payers, 36 states, including Tennessee, have proposed a bill to drug test all welfare recipients. Since the beginning of the year, the welfare rate has jumped 7 percent while at the same time, the welfare funds are drying up. Tennessee funds have dropped 17.5 percent, which comes out to be about $215.3 million dollars this year. State lawmakers have proposed that if drug users on welfare are stopped, they can save a total of $77 million dollars a year, but to stop them they must start the testing now, which will cost the state more money. It would cost $2.3 million dollars a year to test a quarter of the adults receiving aid this year, then $3.8 million to test another 25 percent the following year, and $2.4 million to continue testing the entire population each year thereafter.
Brainstorming was the preferred technique selected to solve the drug usage amongst welfare recipients (University of Phoenix, 2011, pp. 253). Welfare recipients using illegal drugs is a major problem and suggestions towards correcting this issue is critical to the adults and children that are affected. Each group member took a few minutes to construe possible solutions to this epidemic. After time was called, each group member voiced his or her options. The suggestions that arose where: to test all welfare recipients for illegal drugs, randomly test those same recipients every six months, drug test only the recipients that receive cash benefits, and drug test and administer counseling for all of those who fail.
The second technique that was helpful in the process was the nominal group technique. This specific technique