Drug Testing for Welfare Argumentative Essay

Drug Testing for Welfare According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, 4,300,000 Americans are on government based aid, or welfare. That is a little over four percent of the population in America. Welfare is an income based government aid that supports individuals and their families financially if they are unable to support themselves. Welfare is not just given out; you have to apply and be accepted in order to receive the money. Welfare is an income-based aid, drug testing before being granted welfare should be mandatory.

There would be many advantages to administering drug test to people who want to receive help in the form of government aid. Drug testing before granting any person welfare checks should be mandatory. An advantage to having welfare recipients drug tested before being granted welfare is that the recipient may be more willing to get help or seek treatment if government aid is being hindered. An article from Health and Human services writes that “in states where drug testing is mandatory to receive welfare, they have seen people quit using drugs and alcohol, which makes them more employable. (brainstatistics. com) Not all individuals are using the money from welfare for drugs, but many people are. People who are on welfare and doing drugs are double negatives to society and do not contribute. They aren’t trying to be employable so they can remain on welfare. Also, drug testing these people could have a net savings for the government, but that would just be another aspect that contributes to drug testing welfare recipients. When saving the government money and potentially turning people’s lives around being drug tested before receiving government aid would be a good change for society.

The taxpayers in the United States should not have to support a drug user’s addiction. When welfare recipients are not drug tested before receiving welfare checks they could be using the checks, or the taxpayer’s money to buy their drugs, alcohol or cigarettes. Making sure welfare is being spent on appropriate items is hard to control once the money is in the pocket of an individual, but drug testing before, and potentially during an individual’s time on welfare could eliminate money lost to drugs and alcohol during the recipient’s time on welfare.

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In doing this it is saving the government money and using the taxpayer’s money for something that contributes to a positive aspect in society. When the government is handing out welfare checks to people who are using them for drugs the money is not being spent with the right intentions and is not only hurting our economy, but we are the ones supporting it. When doing the drug tests, it will eliminate the drug users and hopefully convince them to get help or stay clean so they are able to get a job or become eligible for welfare. In my opinion drug testing should be mandatory.

Taxpayer’s should not be putting money into a drug fund, we should be giving government aid to the individuals who are struggling, not because of an addiction or a habit, we should be contributing to the single moms, or the retired soldiers, or the critically ill. If an individual is in need of the money bad enough and they are using it for the right reasons then a simple drug test should not be an issue. Especially since they are not paying for it themselves, not only will this benefit the government but also it could benefit the individuals who are using drugs.

If they need the money bad enough it could be an incentive for them to get clean. It will be an expensive fix, but when you help individuals who would usually be on state or government aid become an employee, they can get off of state or government aid and support themselves. When people are becoming independent and getting off government aid, the government starts saving money on the people who would have been using the money for drugs or alcohol. I think welfare is an amazing “temporary” aid for people who are struggling but when people start to rely on it is when the government has issues.

Nothing is ever bad unless you misuse it. Although there are many positive aspects to drug testing welfare applicants, there are also negative aspects to giving drug tests to every applicant. Not only could doing mandatory drug tests upset the people who aren’t using drugs and could violate privacy laws, but drug testing could be a very expensive fix to a huge problem, when drug testing individuals the taxpayer would be paying for the tests to be done on each individual. The prices could add up and could put a debt on the state in the turn-around wasn’t a positive one.

There could be a short fall in the money you spend and the money you would immediately save. This could cost the state and government a large sum of money to start out with and if the results weren’t good the state could lose more money than they would have without doing the drug tests. Mandatory drug testing should be a requirement for individuals to be eligible for welfare. There are far more positive aspects to drug testing than there are negative. If there are over four million people on government aid we should make a movement to try and get a percentage of those people into jobs and independently making their own money.

Once they are independently making their own money the government will not be responsible for them anymore. Applying and being granted government aid is not a right, it is a privilege and to many people take advantage of the system. If government aid is misused, one day we will not be able to use it, and that will be because the people who didn’t actually need it, or the people who used it to supply their addiction or their habit abused it and we ran out of money.

If welfare is a privilege, then people should be willing to do whatever it takes to get approved, including a required drug test to prove that you are not going to spend the government’s money on drugs or alcohol. When doing that you gain the state and governments trust, if you accomplish that they grant you welfare checks to temporarily support you. That’s how the system should be run so our taxpayer’s are supporting the people who are financially struggling. Works Cited "Welfare Statistics. " Statisticbrain. com/welfare-statistics/.

US Department of Health and Human Services, 15 Oct. 2012. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. Geenblatt, Alan. "Does Drug Testing Welfare Recipients Save Money? " Does Drug Testing Welfare Recipients Save Money? N. p. , July 2012. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://www. governing. com/topics/health-human-services/gov-does-drug-testing-welfare-recipients-save-money. html>. Smith, Phillip. "Feature: Bills to Require Drug Testing for Welfare, Unemployment Pop Up Around the Country. " Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Prohibition. N. p. 20 Mar. 2009. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://stopthedrugwar. org/chronicle/2009/mar/20/feature_bills_require_drug_testi>. "Should Welfare Recipients Be Tested for Drugs. " US News. U. S. News & World Report, n. d. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://www. usnews. com/debate-club/should-welfare-recipients-be-tested-for-drugs>. J. F. "Welfare and Drug Testing. " The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 2 Sept. 2011. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://www. economist. com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/09/welfare-and-drug-testing>.

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