Tennessee’s Drug Tests Of Welfare Recipients Find 37 Drug Users

[Paxaeon]

`

"Less than one half of one percent of Tennesseeans who applied for public assistance flunked a drug test in the first six months of the state’s experiment with drug screenings for welfare recipients, according to recently released state figures.

Out of more than 16,000 applicants from the beginning of July through the end of 2014, just 37 tested positive for illegal drug use. While that amounts to roughly 13 percent of the 279 applicants who the state decided to test based on their answers to a written questionnaire about drug use, the overall rate among applicants is just 0.2 percent.

Such an infinitesimal rate of drug use among welfare applicants contrasts sharply with the state’s overall 8 percent rate of drug use. Across the country, states that implement drug tests for low-income families have found that economically vulnerable people are less likely than the general population to use drugs. Utah spent $30,000 on tests that caught just 12 drug users, for a positive rate of 0.2 percent of total benefits recipients....." - Source
​

`

**********************************
​

It looks like another right-wing myth, bites the dust.

 

[azgreg]

`

"Less than one half of one percent of Tennesseeans who applied for public assistance flunked a drug test in the first six months of the state’s experiment with drug screenings for welfare recipients, according to recently released state figures.

Out of more than 16,000 applicants from the beginning of July through the end of 2014, just 37 tested positive for illegal drug use. While that amounts to roughly 13 percent of the 279 applicants who the state decided to test based on their answers to a written questionnaire about drug use, the overall rate among applicants is just 0.2 percent.

Such an infinitesimal rate of drug use among welfare applicants contrasts sharply with the state’s overall 8 percent rate of drug use. Across the country, states that implement drug tests for low-income families have found that economically vulnerable people are less likely than the general population to use drugs. Utah spent $30,000 on tests that caught just 12 drug users, for a positive rate of 0.2 percent of total benefits recipients....." - Source
​

`

**********************************
​

It looks like another right-wing myth, bites the dust.

Didn't Florida go through this as well with the same results?

 

[Longshot Lou]

Conservatives and real Americans everywhere demand a recount.

 

[Paxaeon]

Didn't Florida go through this as well with the same results?

`
The 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, overturned the Florida law.

 

[Bigfoot 88]

Waste of money.

 

[azgreg]

`
The 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, overturned the Florida law.

I was actually referring to the results of the "savings to tax payers". Florida actually spent more money on the drug tests then they saved in benefit payouts.

Drug-test policies end in failure | MSNBC

 

[Real Korimyr #9]

Thing is, nobody pays attention to the fact that all of the people proposing and backing these laws have financial interests in the drug-testing companies. In their overwhelming urge to **** the poor by any means available, they simply don't care about the fact that they-- they, themselves, their own tax monies-- are being exploited by corrupt financial incentives.

 

[humbolt]

Probably a waste. They should test Congress and administrative officials first, anyway. However, please note that they only tested 279 people. The very idea that people might lie about drug use on a drug use questionnaire is preposterous.

 

[Paxaeon]

Probably a waste. They should test Congress and administrative officials first, anyway. However, please note that they only tested 279 people. The very idea that people might lie about drug use on a drug use questionnaire is preposterous.

`
Not quite. 279 took a written exam but all the rest took an actual drug test...ex: dropping urine. - Source

 

[humbolt]

`
Not quite. 279 took a written exam but all the rest took an actual drug test...ex: dropping urine. - Source

You are correct, and I was not. It's a waste in any case in my view. Testing for pot is just silly. It's a part of our culture now, for better or worse. And I problems with the idea that they forego probable cause - I know they can do this, but it seems to me that targeting one particular group over others craps all over the notion that if probable cause is reasonable for some groups, it's reasonable for all groups.