On the topic of drug tests for public assistance recipients, please consider before you judge.

[Lyric]

Should my sister's two little boys (ages seven and five) go hungry and without medical care because my sister starting drinking after her husband's death, and is now struggling with an on-again, off-again alcohol addiction?

Should my neighbor's little girl (eight years old, she'll be nine in June) go without shelter and warm clothes because her Mom occasionally tokes on a bowl that her friends are passing around--marijuana that she did NOT pay for herself?

Should the elderly, emphysema-suffering mother of a sadly drug-addicted old friend of mine lose her Food Stamps and housing assistance because her daughter (her caretaker) can't seem to shake her meth habit?

Should my disabled older sister (in a wheelchair full-time, badly spastic cerebral palsy) lose her Food Stamps and state-funded personal care assistant because she occasionally eats marijuana brownies to help ease the pain of her almost-constant muscle spasms? If such a law passes, there will be no "exceptions" for people like my sister, because marijuana is illegal in West Virginia.

THINK before you judge. Just THINK. Drop the stupid "welfare queen spending TANF checks on crack" stereotype in your head and wake the hell up. If laws like this are allowed to pass, INNOCENT people that we WANT to help with be hurt by them. Children, elderly people, disabled people.

Just THINK. Please.

[Hello_Kitty]

1. Was anyone here supporting them? eom

[Lyric]

2. Sadly, yes.

[readmoreoften]

3. In Texas if you've been convicted of drug possession after 1997 you're ineligible for food stamps.

I just found out that people are starving because they got caught getting high a decade ago. Detestable law.

[w8liftinglady]

20. why does that not surprise me..

Texans are by far the most sanctimonious,judgemental people in America...I know-I live here.

[Cetacea]

21. Texas must have had an evil governor back then.

[EFerrari]

23. Because the stress of starvation is so conducive to sobriety.

Dumber than a box of rocks.

[frogcycle]

4. You need to address this to the republican bigot who proposed it

pleading with those on a generally left-wing discussion board is pointless.

[AllentownJake]

6. You'd be surprised I got into a long argument today with a poster

on why drug testing people for food stamps was a really retarded idea.

[Lyric]

7. I'm guessing you didn't see this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

There are some people here who support this atrocity. There are others who aren't sure.

I just want people to be aware of what could happen if such laws are not vehemently opposed.

[frogcycle]

26. ok, so I glanced through it

and found general scorn for the legislator, some marginal "what is so bad about that?" from people who are drug tested at work.

I admit I did not read the whole thing because it is a tempest in a teapot, and I got really bored really fast

[ulysses]

5. thought is a precious commodity.

[AllentownJake]

8. Make a deal with those people

You drug test the bankers not the rank and file people the people making over 100k whose companies recieved bailout money and you can drug test people getting food stamps.

More money was spent on the bankers and I really want to know what they were smoking the past 8 years that turned solvent companies into shit more than I'm interested in what someone on food stamps is doing.

Wonder how fast this idea would go away.

[Cetacea]

22. Better yet. Give the people enough to eat and live on AND test the bankers.

[HillbillyBob]

9. Some of us Do realise that the welfare queens are the ones that run

banks and wall street and the crony buttbutties of Bush family.
I am a long term HIV patient (25 years) and the only relief i get from the pain and help for nausea is pot, though I cannot afford it so do with out.
You are right that children shouldn't go hungry because their parents or elderly folks should lose their caregivers because life has so beat down these folk they self medicate because they cannot get help.
I don't count pot as a bad drug, its not addictive, I have never seen anyone killed for it, maybe the person that ate the last of the doritos!
The killing that is being done is because of Prohibition and control over the money and supply. It is not the person having a toke, and these holier than hell assholes that claim we are responsible...no it is those holier than hell assholes that keep prohibition going are responsible.

[flvegan]

10. Stereotyping is easier than thinking.

So is being a republican. Coincidence? Didn't think so.

[AllentownJake]

12. If it fits on a bumper sticker

the GOP will turn it into public policy

No tolerance, 3 strikes your out, Pro-Life, Protect Marriage etc, etc, etc

The GOP appeals to people who can't think past three words.

[Nevernose]

11. We could spend the drug-testing money on free rehab/treatment for the poor.

It would probably cost less, especially once all the side costs, like the kids who now have to go live with foster families, is considered, not to mention the legal and court costs.

It would also be more humane, and more effective in the long run. At least then people like your older sister aren't harmed, and your other sister at has an option to help with her struggle.

Why we continue to punish people for the crime of being human is beyond me...

[EFerrari]

13. As DUer Raven said earlier, we'd be farther ahead to drug test Congress.

[U4ikLefty]

14. Thank you. I wish some people here would step out of their prejudices

and see that we all have different stories & struggles.

I can just imagine if I was denied my Pell Grant because I toked up at night. There would be one less liberal-taxpaying engineer in the US.

I pray for your older sister...hope that doesn't offend.

Peace
-U4ik-

[lostnfound]

15. They should drug test public assistance recipients the day after

they drug-test the entire US congress, and the top dogs at every bank that took government money. Etc. etc.

It is absurd to waste money on totalitarian scrutiny of a person who receives a few hundred bucks from the gov, while accepting secrecy from those who are getting billions.

[ThomCat]

16. I love you.

[Lyric]

17. That feeling is totally mutual.

[yurbud]

18. how about drug tests for execs of companies that get fed bailouts and subsidies?

let's be consistent about how we treat welfare recipients.

[Cetacea]

19. How about we decrimalize ALL drugs and crimalize Republicans

"cash advances for drug use” . What country is this guy living in?

[timtom]

24. Best idea yet.

[Froward69]

25. My retort is always

"So you do not have a spine stiff enough to hold on to or stand up for your right against personal searches? You are cowardly enough to submit to a violation of your personal freedom, to simply have a job? So you feel the need to take those rights and liberty's away from others, just so you can feel a sensation of fairness? please you know random drug testing is wrong. So stop trying to impose your spineless oppression on others."

that ends the discussion.


rethuglicans do not care about the infirm. Or the Medicinal benefits of certain "illegal" substances. argue on the stance of taking liberty and rights away and they shut the hell up quickly.

[ThoughtCriminal]

27. Math test

Hypothetically, if a drug test is 95% accurate and 5% of a test population is actually using drugs what are the odds that an individual who tested positive is an actual user.

[FreakinDJ]

28. Better if she was given Assistance and Treatment

I don't wish to envoke the arguement I had yesterday on this subject but I just want to say this

Yes I believe screening people needing assistance for the "Root Cause" of their problems, causes such as alcoholism and drug addiction is a good idea. I'm not advocating "With Holding" their acceptance to programs such as food stamps, housing, and general assistance, but I do feel placing them in qualified treatment programs is a good thing

[varelse]

29. Another home run!

I'm so grateful you're here, providing a powerful antidote to the toxic ignorance which is sadly far too prevalent even on this ostensibly progressive forum.