Drug Testing

There’s a positive new trend that appears to be happening across our country that, I hope, will spread to all the states like the seat belt law and drinking age did in the eighties.

Georgia’s governor, Nathan Deal, signed a measure requiring low-income adults seeking assistance to pass a drug test before being able to receive any public assistance from the state. Florida and Michigan have signed similar measures and Utah and Oklahoma are in the same process.

Receiving assistance has never been intended to be anything but temporary. The assistance is there to carry a person or family over until new employment can be found. A large, and ever growing, number of companies require a drug test to even be eligible to be employed and those companies have the right to randomly drug test their employees. Most public employees fall under this category, as well they should since their salaries are paid for with public funds. Even Walmart requires a drug test prior to employment.

It is only logical that to be eligible to receive any form of government assistance, the recipient should be drug free. If nothing else, it opens up a larger opportunity for employment enabling them to get back on their own feet and not reliant on the fruits of taxpayers' labor. And if a person, whose only source of income is from government assistance, repeatedly tests positive, the assistance should not only be stopped but prosecution should be considered.

Many on the left are against this claiming 4th Amendment violations. The 4th Amendment protects against "unreasonable searches". What makes passing a drug test prior to receiving public assistance unreasonable when so many workers are required to pass a drug test just to be able to earn their paychecks?

Jobs don't find people, people find jobs. Every able-bodied American has a responsibility to find and keep a job unless they are fortunate enough to either be independently wealthy or have someone willing to support them. It is, by no means, not unreasonable to expect someone, who is collecting government assistance, to at least be responsible enough to remain drug free.