Ebony's Pearls

Sage and Dittany
Originally uploaded by nodigio

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29891754/

"If so many jobs require random drug tests these days, why not these benefits?" and “the drive to drug test people collecting unemployment insurance” is gaining ground, too.

See, this is what comes of allowing employers to violate human dignity and the 4th Amendment with required drug testing. Before long, you won’t be able to get a driver’s license, a passport, or even a restaurant meal without being required to pass a drug test.

There are already so many restrictions and requirements for people to receive welfare that many who should be getting it aren’t, and those who do get it get trapped by all the rules and regulations and requirements. Welfare was once meant to be a short term emergency assistance for people who fell on sudden hard times. It has evolved into a massive government program designed to control people, to keep the poor in poverty, and to restrict their movements and opportunities. Anything you do to free yourself of welfare means a sudden end to any benefits; there is no transition period to help you regain your way.

Putting yet another burden upon those who are already struggling, and who know in their bones that they will always struggle because welfare is like flypaper, once stuck to it, you might as well give up and die there.

Besides violating our 4th Amendment rights and subjecting us to this indignity, it costs approximately $400 per test (excluding the salaries of those who administer the tests and do the paperwork involving the testing and the tracking of the victims), and a follow-up test may be needed to rule out false positives – assuming they give the poor person the benefit of that doubt. At a time when we need to be considering how to maximize our tax dollars, random, suspicionless drug testing is counter-intuitive, burdensome, and expensive.