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Essay On Pros And Cons For Welfare Drug Testing

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Besonen, Mark. 'Drug Testing For Welfare Recipients: Pro'. 2014. Theconcordian.org. 30 Oct. 2015.
Welfare was created during the days of the Great Depression as a temporary assistance to those who suffered from an economic collapse. Presently, welfare for some has become a long-term commitment. Welfare could be seen as an agreement between the people in need of assistance and the people who provide for them so drug testing is a way to prove recipients hold up their end of the deal. Since employees are required to be drug tested for their job, it is fair that recipients receiving benefits are drug tested for welfare. This article provides insight on the pro side of drug testing. Since the author is a conservative, he is a little bias.
Carpenter, …show more content…

There are both pros and cons of drug testing. Besides the fact it could save money by removing drug users, drug testing could influence the lower class to stay off drugs. Because many are required to be drug tested for their job, people who are for drug testing believe it is fair to have recipients tested for welfare. Cons of drug testing are that testing is discriminating and testing could punish children for their parent’s choices. This article is useful because it provides two sides to testing. Unfortunately, this article is short and does not completely cover the pros and cons of …show more content…

The underlining pro of mandatory drug testing is it will potentially terminate the families who abuse the system. However, the cons of drug testing are that it will create additional cost to test recipients, violate a person’s privacy, and take money from other programs to pay for the tests. This article is very informative because it provides both the pros and the cons of mandatory drug testing of welfare recipients. This article is useful to my paper because it provides facts without bias and is supported by the National Institute of Mental Health Social Work Research Development Center on Poverty, Risk, and Mental

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“We also should question the constitutionality of drug testing to receive only certain benefits,” Young muses, because in her opinion this method “targets only certain groups of people” (Young). She also goes on to compare the process of applying for college grants to the process of applying for food stamps, a comparison that might seem too far-fetched to some. Furthermore, the editorial loses some of its strength with a series of questions to which there is no definitive answer. Questions like “is it moral to deny someone with a disease” and “should we be drug-testing corporate officers” are never fully addressed, and she also makes the assumption that “a college student is just as likely to buy drugs as a working-class person”

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Education about overdose or providing referrals to medical and social services such as health screenings are offered. Also, incorporating harm reduction strategies into public health interventions for people who inject drugs may be helpful in resolving other health care (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). One argument against Needle Exchange programs is that by providing needles and syringes to addicts, the government is essentially condoning illicit and immoral behavior (“Debate: Needle exchanges”). Drug users are continuously given free access of clean utensil to shoot up. Instead of providing them access, the government should focus on punishing drug users, discourage drug-use, and provide more treatment for quitting

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An article from The Washington Post, “The Double-Standard of Making the Poor Prove They’re Worthy of Government Benefits” by Emily Badger, conveys her insights on the double-standard that is put on citizens who receive welfare benefits. We don’t drug-test farmers who receive agriculture subsidies, college students who receive Pell Grants, and wealthy families who cash in on the home mortgage interest deduction (Badger). No one seems to give a second glance when the government hands out money to farmers, college students, and wealthy home-owners because, when compared to the portion of the population on welfare, society has taught us who is more likely to abuse drugs. In most cases, welfare recipients are given a check from the government about once a month. This is a clear-cut, easy to see benefit.

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The question came up whether it's fair to judge an entire system based on the few people who abuse the system? The response was you are not judging the whole system. Instead you are making the system more reliable. By drug testing you are rewarding the honest participants by making the application process easier. By getting rid of the dishonest

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Thirty-five percent of Americans recieve help from welfare every day, and if we drug test them that number would suddenly drop. Some individuals claim that drug testing would help individuals by putting them into treatment; however, there are several reasons why drug testing would not help recipients. While drug testing could recognize the individuals who need help, problems would be caused such as impacts on the person, the cost, and other impacts such as on children and poverty levels. I A. First, drug testing will cause problems with the money people are receiving. If the test is positive the recipient will have reduced income and they may not get any income at all (US Department of Health and Human Services 8).

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The idea behind Kantian Ethics is that doing the right thing is not about the consequences of our actions but rather the principle motivating the action. Actions must be performed out of duty, that is, it is done solely because we have an obligation to perform such action out of respect for the moral law. As explained by Immanuel Kant, “the moral worth of an action done out of duty has its moral worth” (105). Kant argues that to act morally, then, is to “act only on the maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law” (108). Utilitarianism, developed by John Stuart Mill, is one of the most commonly used approaches in making moral decisions.

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Essentially, the war on drugs has demonstrated to be an exorbitant expense. The federal government in 2002 alone spent $18.822 billion in the form of expenditures such as treatment, prevention, and domestic law enforcement (CSDP, 2007, p. 54). However, given that the drug war has garnered meager results, this investment may be interpreted as a waste of taxpayer dollars. Alternatively, the money that has been allocated to arrest and detain drug offenders may also be a source of contention. CSDP (2007) “Of the 1,846,351 arrests for drug law violations in 2005, 81.7% (1,508,469) were for possession of a controlled substance.

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The balance between power and privilege is vital to any social issue that occurs. The class that has limited materials and representation in society are typically those who suffer the most. The inequality between classes exhibits and predicts the extent to which substance abuse is associated with race and economic disadvantage. Moreover, those of higher classes gain more opportunities due to their exposure of resources and good financial standing whereas those of a lower class do not gain the same opportunities and therefore fall victim to crime such as drug

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Why Drug Decriminalization Won’t Work in the U.S. In 2001, Portugal took a gamble against the ongoing war on drugs by decriminalizing all drugs. This does not mean drugs aren’t illegal anymore, the consequences of being found in possession of drugs are reduced, except large amounts of drug trafficking. People who are found with smaller or personal amounts of drugs are subject to being sent to a Portuguese Commission for the Dissuasion of Drug Addiction. Here, the three-person commission determines if the individual is addicted to the focused substance.

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Drug testing also helps in schools and in the society. It lets the school officials and the government officials if the teenagers are getting involved in drug use. If they knew that their teenagers are involved in drug use, they can easily help them to recover. Although drug testing has advantages, it also has some disadvantages. Walters (2002) stated that “Using drugs can have a variety of negative consequences for young people: Whether it is failing to live up their academic or social potential, getting in trouble with the law, or jeopardizing the health and safety of themselves and

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Lawmakers and the public alike state that drug testing might be beneficial to prevent tax money from being funneled into illegal activity it does not guarantee that these people will not spend their money on other legal recreational activities and substances. Finally, lawmakers have yet to determine what the restriction and punishments should be for those who can not or have not passed their drug tests. The degree of punishment that would be indicative of a possible rehabilitation of the individual without also punishing the children of that home (Pollack,2006). Each of these reasons is a primary cause of the controversy that have prevented most states from enforcing drug testing before receiving benefits. However, states such as Florida and Georgia have recently passed their own drug testing program for their welfare recipients, with the hope that the benefits of these tests will outweigh the consequences (McCarty,2012).

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I believe those with drug-related felonies should not be prohibited from receiving student loans, food stamps, and other forms of benefits and assistance after they’ve completed their sentence; however, preconditioned requirements and policies should be established before the reinstatement of privileges. For example, if an individual is arrested for driving under the influence, he or should have to attend a drug/alcohol assessment and treatment class before their license a reinstated, in accordance with federal, state, or local laws (Reuters, 2017). If a parent was arrested for child abuse or neglect, one or both parents would have to attend parent education programs that will strengthen and enhance their parenting skills. Before the child

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The Vermont Department of Corrections Commissioner, Andy Pallito, says, “there aren't enough drug-treatment providers to handle the effects of such a switch” (Davis 1). Instead of locking these people up for drug addiction, Pallito is trying to solve the problem by helping these people get healthier and become better citizens. There are good and bad things related to this debate over drugs and there has not been a change in the

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(Pg. 1) The is a substantiated link between drug abuse and poverty and charging only further impoverishes them by limiting their access to higher education, access to work, housing and social

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We, as a collective body of people from all over the world, face a large list of important issues. At the top of this list, we will most likely find drug dependency. For many people and families, drug issues become a tragedy that effects their lives in far too many ways. With the proliferation of illicit drugs all over the world, we find that each generation is facing issues they are ill-prepared to deal with without getting help. (-- removed HTML --) Drug Dependency in the US (-- removed HTML --)

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