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In TN we don't just profile minorities, we profile the poor too
House lawmakers approved legislation creating a system to test welfare recipients for drugs on a 73-17 vote Tuesday morning.
Lawmakers passed Senate Bill 2580, which calls for testing anyone who fails a psychiatric screening designed to detect behavior that indicates drug use.
Proponents said the bill will keep money from going to drug users and help them get treatment. Opponents said it punishes the poor.
?What we?re going to do is profile poor people,? said state Rep. Joe Towns, D-Memphis.
The measure cleared the Senate last month. The bill now goes to Gov. Bill Haslam for signature.
Tennessee would be set to join a growing list of states that have adopted drug testing for welfare recipients.
Florida has been the most notable. Its broad-based program of testing welfare recipients has caught very few violators, but supporters of the bill said many were deterred from applying in the first place, as the welfare rolls dropped by more than 10 percent after the program was adopted.
Testing programs have also run into court challenges, as judges have ruled that it violates constitutional provisions barring unreasonable searches. Tennessee Attorney General Robert Cooper issued two opinions stating drug testing would probably run into the same fate if it were applied to all welfare recipients.
State lawmakers moved to head off that argument by requiring testing only when welfare administrators have a suspicion that recipients are using drugs. That suspicion could be based on a prior drug conviction or failure to pass the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory, a psychiatric assessment.
Legislative staffers estimate Tennessee would save about $1.8 million in welfare payments through the program, which would cost about $400,000 to administer. Defending the law in court would cost more than $100,000, they said.
Five drugs tested
The bill calls for testing for marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, amphetamines and opiates. Tests would cost about $30 and would be paid for by Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients, who typically get about $140 a month in benefits.
State Rep. Rick Womick, R-Rockvale, said the requirement is no more onerous than he faces in the private sector.
?As an airline pilot, I get drug tested every time I turn around,? he said.
State Rep. David Alexander, R-Winchester, also said testing would remove the stigma associated with using public benefits.
Opponents said it is unfair to make welfare recipients pay for the tests, a provision meant to keep the cost of the program down. Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Turner, D-Old Hickory, filed an amendment that would have shifted testing costs to the state; that proposal was rejected.
Foes also said the bill is premised on the notion that the poor use drugs more than the general population.
?It is, in the sociological sense, blaming the victims,? said Rep. Jeanne Richardson, D-Memphis, who worked with the bill?s backers on the bill yet cast her vote against it. ?We?re going to ferret out your evildoing and we?re going to show you. ? I do not believe I that and I object to that.?
Re: In TN we don't just profile minorities, we profile the poor too
I want to know where they got those numbers. The most recent report I read did not report such a large drop. Plus, it concluded that the program cost more money than it saved in benefits denials.
OMG. Maybe because you're flying a friggin' airplane full of passengers!
You know what else would remove the stigma? For jackasses to stop assuming everyone receiving public assistance is a strung out junkie.
So, if they fail, does that mean they get a all expense paid treatment program provided to them?
This is so stupid.
Zuma Zoom
You have to undergo a psychiatric test before receiving benefits? AND THEN you also have to take a drug test?
FFS. No really, FFS. TN taxpayer dollars are going towards this? Talk about bloated government spending.
Bet it won't be to Betty Ford. It's going to be at one of TN's Mega Churches where they not only pray away the gay they pray away the meth.
This would be funny if it wasn't true
Above Us Only Sky
is this cost savings/expenses per year?
and what the heck costs $400,000 if it doesn't include the cost of the test?
so if each person gets $140/mo that's $1,680/yr
to have a $1,800,000 savings, to find out how many people they kick off I divide the savings/1 person benefit right? you gotta watch my math sometimes.
1,800,000 / 1,680 = 1,070 people
so TN has a drug problem among the poor estimated to be about 1000 people?
we are invading the privacy of how many to weed out 1,070?
or do we have to add the $400,000 back to the $1,800,000? Is 1.8 million the net savings?
2,200,000 / 1,680 = 1,310 people
invading privacy?
if you are taking handouts you dont get that privacy
So you believe in drug testing for Social Security recipients?
So you're willing to take a drug test as a condition of taking your mortgage interest deduction? You know, since you're taking a handout from renters like me who are subsidizing the cost of home ownership? Cool. Glad we're on the same page.
why not? i'm sure she has nothing to hide. it's only poor people who do illegal things like that. duh.
as a condition of my employment anyone in healthcare has to take them, whats the big deal?
drugs are illegal period. against the law.
You are okay with providing aid to families who stay on that aid because they spend their money on drugs? No deal. Good for TN.
PS No I dont automatically assume those on welfare are drug addicts. I just dont see the big deal with enforcing a law for anyone, let alone someone the govt (aha US) is supporting.
Objection. Non-responsive.
Do you think it's OK to require drug tests in order to claim the home mortgage interest deduction since renters are subsidizing the cost of home ownership via the internal revenue code?
Answer the question, Claire.
So again, do you believe we should drug test Social Security recipients?
why not?
drugs are illegal, period.
I think though to drug test everyone with a mortgage or social security benefits would be far too costly a proposition but if there was a cheap way to do it there is no harm.(though there is no way financially our broken system could undertake this.)
so stop with the semantics and high horse. we need welfare reform and if drug testing helps why not?
Can you please provide some evidence that it works? Because the studies done on the Florida program show exactly what you claim is true about drug-testing a larger population, such as those claiming the mortgage interest deduction: that the costs of administering the program outweigh the savings. (See: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/20/2758871/floridas-welfare-drug-tests-cost.html.) But if you know of another reliable economic study proving that it actually saves money, I'm all ears.
As for welfare reform, it's called 1996. And welfare benefits were worth much less in 2011 than they were in 1996 in most states.
Because it doesn't help. If you'd read the rest of the thread, or the billion other articles out there explaining just why this is a failed approach you'd realize that drug testing welfare recipients is costing the government exponentially more money than not administering the tests.
Not only that, but the number of people they are catching isn't any more than what they were catching before the implementation of the drug testing programs. There are a couple of *decades* of research on drug use and welfare, and the results are being born out with this failed experiment - Less than 5% of welfare recipients are on drugs, and they were being caught by the existing system without costing the tax payers more money.
Not only that, but drug testing has been ruled unconstitutional. But then again, maybe the poor don't deserve to be protected by the constitution. Only those who aren't taking "handouts." Y'know, the big money that you're contributing to the system, all $1.25 that you pay yearly.
Final nail in your welfare reform coffin is that it was implemented in the 1990s under Clinton and has done a DAMN good job of making sure there are not abusers to the system. Now I'll wait patiently while you tell me some anecdote about your brother's sister's girlfriend's niece who drives around on rims and gets her nails done daily while receiving assistance.