Welfare recipients in Missouri now will have to submit to drug testing in order to keep their benefits, under a new state law.

 

Anyone refusing to be tested will lose their eligibility. But those testing positive can still be in the program as long as they complete substance-abuse treatment.

 

Children of parents denied welfare because of the new law can receive benefits, as long as the state can locate a third party to handle the assistance for the minors.

 

Missouri’s effort is similar to others in more than two dozen states considering drug-testing requirements for welfare programs. In May, Florida adopted legislation requiring people who apply for welfare to pay for their drug testing (with the state reimbursing them if they pass the screening).

 

Michigan passed welfare drug-testing legislation in 1999. The American Civil Liberties Union quickly filed a class-action lawsuit and the law was put on hold by a District Court judge five weeks after it took affect. The judge wrote that drug testing an entire class of citizens simply because they were poor “would be dangerously at odds with the tenets of our democracy.” 

 

Four years later the judge’s decision was affirmed by a divided Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Michigan’s law included mandatory testing when people applied for welfare and random drug testing every six months for 20% of those already receiving assistance. 

 

Backers of welfare testing laws argue that it is appropriate because taxpayers should not have to give money to people who are buying illegal drugs. Opponents counter that welfare recipients are the only beneficiaries of government assistance who are forced to take drug tests.

 

African Americans don’t have a problem with drug-testing welfare recipients, according to a new poll conducted by BlackPlanet/NewsOne. The survey found 77% of blacks support such plans.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Nixon Signs Bill Authorizing Drug Testing for Welfare Recipients (by Chris Blank, Associated Press)

New Missouri Law Requires Drug Tests for Welfare Recipients (by Kase Wickman, The Raw Story)

Black People Strongly Support Drug Tests for Welfare Recipients (News One)

Settlement Reached in ACLU of Michigan Lawsuit Over Mandatory Drug Testing of Welfare Recipients  (ACLU)