Drug testing on welfare II - Speech or Presentation Example

The article therefore shows Davidson’s stance that he is indeed a supporter of drug testing for welfare. Despite this show of support, this legislation is still very controversial in the United States, and there is a lot of debate surrounding it. It can be said that while the intentions for the passing of this legislation in various states has been well meaning, its positive effects have yet to be seen. According to Ben Neary and Ivan Moreno, drug testing has come to be highly ineffective and unreliable when it comes to welfare.

They state that this legislation has come to be seen as a waste of time and money for various reasons. Drug testing for welfare has come to be seen as unreliable because it has been found that people, who receive welfare, are not the biggest drug users in the United States. Most of the states that passed this legislation did so because of the belief that those who received welfare used the money they received to obtain drugs. The legislation was therefore, introduced to deny them the means of getting drugs, something that was thought to be commendable at the time.

However, this assumption was found to be untrue, because of all the welfare applicants tested for drugs, only two percent of them tested positive. Incidents such as these have confirmed that this law is ineffective, due to the fact that its intended targets have been found to be innocent of what they have been accused. It has now been confirmed that welfare recipients are not the majority drug users in the United States. In addition, many of those legislatures, which have already passed the law, have been found to be in the wrong by various federal courts. . In addition, many of those legislatures, which have already passed the law, have been found to be in the wrong by various federal courts.

These courts have blocked this law from being implemented in some states because of the ruling that the drug testing for welfare policy is unconstitutional. Despite this fact, many of the state legislatures, according to Neary and Moreno, are attempting to come up with ways that will make this law survive any court action that is brought against it. The drug-testing program is an extremely expensive process for those states that have instituted it into their welfare system. The welfare applicants are required to pay for their own tests, and if they are found to be negative, then the state has the obligation to refund them.

This procedure has turned out to be extremely expensive because the majority of applicants have tested negative. The states, therefore, end up spending more than they normally would have if the program had not been put in place. Moreover, this program also has administrative costs, such as paying the staff that run it as well as for the facilities. All these costs are footed by the states, an unnecessary expense; the money would have been put in better use expanding the welfare program to cater for people who need it.

These added costs to the state governments with little result have ensured ineffectiveness of this program. The drug testing for welfare program was created for the purpose of reducing the number of people who applied for welfare. It was estimated that a large number of people who applied for welfare did not totally need it and that they only applied for it to get money to fund their drug abuse among other vices (Hoover). The intended purpose of this law was not met;