Warning: Constant ABSPATH already defined in /home/flanews/public_html/wp-config.php on line 34
Capitol News Service » Blog Archive » Drug Testing on the Move

Welcome to

Capitol News Service

Florida's Best Political Coverage on Television

 


 


 


Recent Posts

RSS Quote of the Day

  • Charles Baudelaire
    "Everything that is beautiful and noble is the product of reason and calculation."
  • Wilson Mizner
    "The best way to keep your friends is not to give them away."
  • Benjamin Disraeli
    "Silence is the mother of truth."
  • H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
    "Never forget the three powerful resources you always have available to you: love, prayer, and forgiveness."

Drug Testing on the Move

March 31st, 2011 by Mike Vasilinda

Legislation to require drug testing for anyone receiving public assistance passed it’s third legislative committee today in Tallahassee. The measure would require testing to receive benefits, but even the legislature’s own staff says the bill could un constitutional.

Welfare recipients could soon have to be drug tested as a condition of receiving public assistance. Sponsor Jimmy Smith says its an idea that is overdue.

“Basically, what we hope to accomplish with this” says Smith “is to ensure that people who are using tax dollars are using them for the right cause, feeding their families, taking care of their homes”.

Governor Rick Scott is on board.

“Knowing that you are going to be drug tested hopefully will give you another incentive to not use drugs,”  says Scott.

But a host of advocates, including Karen Woodall from the Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy, aren’t so sure.

“What’s the point. If you are doing really counseling with these people and you identify they have a substance abuse problem, then you should work with them and get them into treatment,” says Woodall.

Under the plan, assistance money would go to relatives to care for children if someone tests positive. The legislation says welfare recipients needed to be tested once a year…and pay for it themselves.

The legislatures own staff and the ACLU say the bill is likely unconstitutional.

“You mention the Michigan case” says Ronald Bilbao. “It did pass and it was ruled unconstitutional when applied universally or randomly without reasonable suspicion of drug use.”

But the testimony did nothing to sway committee members like Dennis Baxley.

“We are becoming enablers and participants in this sick little relationship about substance abuse” says Baxley.

The bill has two more committee stops, which could make time its worst enemy.

One GOP House member tried to shift the cost of the testing to the state but withdrew the amendment. Anyone testing positive would be ineligible for public assistance for a year.

Posted in State News | No Comments »

Leave a Comment

Please note: Comment moderation is enabled and may delay your comment. There is no need to resubmit your comment.

copyright © 2016 by Capitol News Service | Powered by Wordpress | Hosted by LyonsHost.com