Thursday, August 25, 2011

Turns Out Welfare Recipients Aren't Actually All Junkies

Perennial douchebag Rick Scott, the governor of Florida, raised eyebrows when he instituted a policy of forcing welfare recipients to submit to drug tests before collecting their benefits.  Even more controversial, the test has to be paid for by the person applying for benefits.  If the test is negative, the state reimburses the individual, but I can definitely see the cost of the test discouraging some people from applying. 



Anyway, the law went into effect and some surprising numbers have popped up:  only two percent of the people seeking welfare benefits have tested positive for illegal drug use.

Having begun the drug testing in mid-July, the state Department of Children and Families is still tabulating the results. But at least 1,000 welfare applicants took the drug tests through mid-August, according to the department, which expects at least 1,500 applicants to take the tests monthly.
So far, they say, about 2 percent of applicants are failing the test; another 2 percent are not completing the application process, for reasons unspecified.
I wonder how many poor people (to include people stricken with the disease of addiction) haven't even attempted to collect needed benefits because of this policy?

1 comment:

  1. I wonder if this will get him to re-think the policy....

    ReplyDelete