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Arizona Spent Over $1.7 Million Drug Testing Welfare Recipients to Catch 1 Person in 3 years
Somehow in America if you are poor and in need of food, you better not take drugs, or no public assistance for you! You deserve to die of hunger because you spend your money on ‘da dope.Just don’t die in the street where we have to step over your body on the way to the nail salon.
Oh, and by the way, this is a wholly made up problem created by frightened politicians. According to a study by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, differences between the proportion of welfare and non-welfare recipients using illegal drugs are statistically insignificant.
But that did not stop Arizona.Arizona proudly claims it spent $1.7 million dollars to test 87,000 people on public assistance for drug use. The total number of drug cheats caught in the first three years of the program, 2009-2012, was exactly one — a single positive result, which saved the state precisely $560, minus the $42 cost of the drug test itself. But oh my, since 2012, they got two more of the danged varmints.
Luckily, the Arizona drug testing is being done in a scientific way. The state asks new welfare recipients whether they’ve used drugs in the past 30 days, and only those who answer yes are tested.
Now the goody-goodest news of all is that Arizona apparently has got them some cheap drug testing. The ACLU estimates that an average drug test costs $42, bringing the total cost as high as $3.65 million if all of the Arizona welfare recipients were subjected to the full-price tests. But who knows,maybe there was GroupOn.
And luckily the money being spent on these drug tests is not going to feed hungry people, so it’s not being wasted on American who are wasted.
It is not just Arizona who wastes taxpayer money to solve a non-problem. Have a look:
Missouri
Applicants for benefits that required drug screening, March 2013–September 2014: 69,587
Total required to take follow-up drug test at additional cost: 1,646
Disqualified due to a positive drug test: 69Utah
Applicants for benefits that required drug screening, August 2012–July 2014: 9,253
Total required to take follow-up drug test at additional cost: 1,878
Disqualified due to a positive drug test: 29Tennessee
Applicants for benefits that required drug screening, July 2014–December 2014: 11,300
Total required to take follow-up drug test at additional cost: 273
Disqualified due to a positive drug test: 24Florida
Applicants for benefits that required drug screening, July 2014–December 2014: 4,044
Total required to take follow-up drug test: Unknown
Disqualified due to a positive drug test: 108The neat thing is that Florida used to (they were stopped by court order) requires welfare applicants, who have little money hence the application, to pay for their own drug tests up front. If they passed the test, they eventually had their money refunded.
Note that if you can afford your own food, take all the drugs you want. Smoke up, Arizonians, and order that pizza delivered when you get the munchies. Damn hippies.
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jo6pac said...
1The states that do this they don’t care about how many they catch, it’s about feeding your friends company that does the testing. $$$$$$$$$$$$$
08/12/15 10:01 AM | Comment Link
Al said...
2The cost of these extortion programs (pee in the cup or no support for you!)that cruelly and immorally victimize our most vulnerable citizens certainly show that all that talk by politicians about “fiscal responsibility” or claims of being “fiscally conservative” are just so much blather.
Of course, the bloated military budget (including DHS and the IC) provides even more obvious proof. Congress can always find money for some new weapons program to kill people.
Its unfortunate, but the U.S. really does have a number of people who, although not rich themselves, identify with the statements of the rich (pols, preachers, bankers) and think its a good idea to punish the unfortunate because they’re all just a bunch of freeloaders. They lack sympathy, let alone empathy. Misfortune isn’t real until it happens to them. I also think there’s a strong element of racism attached to this type of thinking and policies. It goes all the way back to Reagan’s “Welfare Queen” myth.
In the 1930’s photos of dust-bowl victims and white men in breadlines garnered sympathy. Now that the complexion of the poor as portrayed in the media, has changed, they are castigated.
Although the poor (who never seem to be presumed to be white) are a safe target of public shaming, politicians, pundits, and bankers have not exempted the middle and working class from derision and indirectly, punishment.
Mitt and his 47% comment. Phil Gramm “Americans are a bunch of whiners” (2008). Neal Cavuto demonizing home owners. And my favorite: November 2010 – CBS Evening News – Lloyd Blankfein appears twice in one month to tell viewers that Americans are just going to have to “get used” to making due with less. “We” were just going to have to lower our expectations about retirement after working for – wait for it- 20 years. (I’ve been working for nearly 40 and I’m nowhere near retirement).
Americans side with the winner. Even if the winner is a liar and racist (like Reagan) who actively sought to backrupt us individually and as a nation (why isn’t it considered treasonous for a president to turn a nation from a lender into a debter? just wondering)
In the movie “Bully” a school principal takes the side of the bully against his victim. She scolds the victim for not accepting his tormentor’s fake apology.
The culture of punishment is deeply ingrained. In Michael Moore’s movie “Sicko”, he interviewed Americans living in France. One of them had a chronic illness. He had to disclose this illness on his paperwork to enter the country. He did so, fearing he would be barred from entering France. That wasn’t why the asked. They asked the question so that they (the gov’t) could get him the medical treatment he needed. What does that say about how brainwashed we’ve become?
08/13/15 1:32 AM | Comment Link
On Stupid Arguments, Welfare Reform and the Myth of Ghetto Faboulous | ChrisMaverick dotcom said...
3[…] Arizona Spent Over $1.7 Million Drug Testing Welfare Recipients to Catch 1 Person in 3 years […]
09/3/15 4:32 AM | Comment Link