We have a drug test here at NORML... "Do you recognize this leaf?"
We have been reporting for the last few years about different politicians from Florida to Washington who have proposed drug testing citizens who were applying for welfare benefits, from housing subsidies, to food stamps and in my home state of Oregon, even domestic violence victims.
Last month a Democratic state Representative from Georgia introduced a bill that would require the local legislature to pee in a cup as well. He said he was struck by the number of bills in 2011 to require welfare applicants to submit to drug testing. He is not for drug testing, But Rep. Scott Holcomb introduced the bill to bring some attention to it. He said he was struck by just how awful it was that some of his Republican colleagues were targeting welfare recipients and applicants for drug testing.
Rep. Holcomb isn’t the first to introduce a bill to protect citizens against legislating under the influence, but he is the latest. He said he thought of writing the bill when he was watching a constituent who was annoyed with a Republican welfare-testing bill ask a TV reporter, “Ho do we know you aren’t on drugs?”. He said, well, they don’t. So far, just Florida is the only place where the state government got a welfare drug test bill to pass, but thankfully it was ruled a violation of the state constitution’s ban on unreasonable search and seizure just four months later.
In the four months that Florida did drug test welfare recipients, only 2.5 percent tested positive for an illicit substance. Florida Governor Rick Scott who pushed the drug testing bill in his state said he would be willing to submit to testing. In December, before Rep. Holcomb introduced his drug testing bill for the Georgia legislature, a bill by fellow Georgia politician, Rep. Jack Kingston was introduced to congress to ask all the states to drug test applicants before awarding unemployment benefits. That bill was passed by the US House of Representatives, but failed in the Senate
External Links:
http://northdruidhills.patch.com/articles/bill-would-require-state-lawmakers-to-be-drug-tested
