Arizona Drug Tested Welfare Recipients — Here Are the Shocking Results

[RandySF]

But an examination of Arizona's experiment reveals a flawed policy that has failed to accomplish its stated goal. Instead of saving the state money, it's cost taxpayers millions of dollars while doing little more than further stigmatizing poverty and marginalizing the poor.

The results are thin: According to USA Today, Arizona tested more than 87,000 welfare recipients in the three years after the program began. The total number of drug cheats caught was exactly one — a single positive result, which saved the state precisely $560.

Checking in again in March, the Arizona Sonora News Service cited state Department of Economic Security figures which found that over the course of more than five years, "42 people have been asked to take a follow-up drug test and 19 actually took the test, 16 of whom passed. The other 23 were stripped of their benefits for failing to take the drug test."

That adds up to a grand total of three failed tests from 2009-2014. The net savings reaped from withholding benefits for those who either tested positive or failed to complete a drug test was around $3,500, once the $500 cost of testing the 19 is factored in, according to one state agency report. The haul is especially unimpressive when you consider the $1.7 million in savings state officials promised when they unveiled the program.


http://mic.com/articles/122607/arizona-drug-tested-welfare-recipients-here-are-the-shocking-results

[951-Riverside]

1. I am absolutely stunned

[Xipe Totec]

2. What were they toking when they came up with this glorious plan? nt

[niyad]

3. i AM 100% in favour of drug tests for all those who suck at the public teat--the politicians,

the lobbyists, and their corporate masters.

[daleanime]

4. Drug testing is unnecessary....

simply place them in quarantine for a couple of years.

[niyad]

5. somewhere remote and unpleasant

[daleanime]

7. I like the way you think.

[niyad]

9. don't get me started. I have a most excellent imagination.

[Blue Owl]

6. Suck on this, Scott Walker

Doesn't he want the same policy in Wisconsin? What a waste.

[niyad]

8. they don't see their hatred, bigotry and ignorance as hate, which is unbelievably clueless.

[teach1st]

10. They are deathly afraid of people getting something for nothing

The politicians who are advocate drug testing for welfare recipients are really afraid that people will get something for nothing. If they're poor. If they're rich, it's fine. That's just free enterprise.

[Nevernose]

11. IIRC, the exact same thing happened in FL a few years ago

Any Floridians with a better memory than mine remember the details of that?

[Hydra]

13. I don't remember the details offhand

But something similar, yes. Lots of millions spent, .5% or less found to be using.

It's the oldest and stupidest meme in the book. Welfare itself is almost non-existant, been stripped to the bone and getting smaller, and the people on it are usually working poor, not happily doping.

lemme find the article for numbers...

Edit:
FL Numbers: 2.6 percent of the state’s cash assistance applicants failed the drug test, or 108 of 4,086, Net loss of $45,000 in 4 months

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/18/us/no-savings-found-in-florida-welfare-drug-tests.html

Everyone else:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/02/26/3624447/tanf-drug-testing-states/

I thought I heard the FL numbers were much higher, both numbers tested and money spent, but my bad there. I think this still sums it up though:

the rate of positive drug tests to total welfare applicants ranges from 0.002 percent to 8.3 percent, but all except one(currently testing state) have a rate below 1 percent. Meanwhile, they’ve collectively spent nearly $1 million on the effort, and millions more may have to be spent in coming years.

[csziggy]

14. It's in the article linked in the OP

In Florida, where the practice has been repeatedly challenged in the courts, Republican Gov. Rick Scott announced in March that he would not submit any further appeals on behalf of a law ruled unconstitutional by two federal courts. In rejecting the state's claim in December 2014, the justices for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals found that during the nearly four months the law was in effect, "4,046 applicants submitted to drug testing. Only 108 — 2.67% — tested positive for drug use."

[Nevernose]

21. Imagine that, right?

Not reading all of the information before posting questions and looking like an idiot? That would NEVER happen to me!

[OffWithTheirHeads]

12. Please read the comments! This article is misleading!

[Nevernose]

23. In what way?

I'm using a phone and it won't show comments.

[Skittles]

15. CAN WE DRUG TEST PEOPLE WHO START SENSELESS WARS AND CRASH THE ECONOMY

YES INDEED

[Kalidurga]

16. There is something evil about cutting benefits for people even if they use drugs.

Maybe it's even worse. People who are drug dependent are that way for a reason and the reasons usually have something to do with poverty, abuse, more abuse, not having access to the things they need to stop using drugs.

[Hydra]

17. I'm pushing for legalizaton for that reason

And minimum income. Helping people shouldn't be considered taboo.

[Kalidurga]

18. It's only taboo if it's certain people.

[restorefreedom]

19. wow. one whole positive test result?

that was totally worth all the time and taxpayer money!

insert obvious sarcasm tag here.....

[midnight]

20. kick...

[HeiressofBickworth]

22. And who actually benefited from this exercise?

The drug-testing industry! They get paid, no matter what the results show.

[Comrade Grumpy]

24. Conservative politicians benefited by scoring points with their retrograde constituencies...

...whose combination of class and race antipathies laps up shit like this.

They do it all over the country, with similar results. Who cares if it works as long as it's aimed at the poor and non-white?

[B Calm]

25. What gets me is how many people I

have talked to thinks drug testing welfare recipients is a good idea.

[brush]

26. It amazes me also. Drugs are expensive . . . Duh!

Very expensive. Just where are welfare recipients getting major cash to buy drugs?

Huh, idiots?

Where?