In 2009, Arizona became the first state to impose a drug-test rule for Welfare recipients (when there is a reasonable cause that is, which according to USA Today “reasonable cause” means you confess you’ve used drugs in the past 30 days.). Since then, about 87,000 people have been tested, and guess how many came out positive for drug use…
One during the first three years of the program, and a grand total of three from 2009 to 2014.
According to a write up by Mic’s Gregory Krieg, the program is in place to allegedly protect taxpayer dollars, but it only saved Arizona $560 out of the $200 million its paid out in assistance since the testing program started:
“We don’t want people who are abusing drugs to be on welfare,” GOP state Rep. John Kavanagh told the Arizona Republic in 2009, “because that means that the taxpayers are subsidizing and facilitating illegal drug use.”
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.
…
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.
Still, Mic says at least six other states have similar programs that are also flawed. In Utah, 12 out of 466 people tested positive for drugs at a cost to the stat of $25,000. In Tennessee, 37 out of 16,017, or .023 percent, of recipients failed their drug test.
Read the entire article here.
This article appears in Jul 23-29, 2015.
Yes, they are wasting money.
Not near as much as they are wasting paying welfare to about 90% of the “recipients” who are scamming the system!
Why not reverse it ans say if you’re caught with drugs welfare is cancelled? Clinton reformed welfare in the 90s and it’s really broken again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Responsibility_and_Work_Opportunity_Act
I stand corrected. It was the Republican Congress that reformed it. And now a Democrat has exploited us again.
No not a waste of money. It would save money by dumping the people with illegal drugs in their systems.
Apparently most of the posters did not bother actually reading the article and/or doing the math. YES, AZ IS WASTING MONEY DRUG TESTING PEOPLE GETTING WELFARE. SO ARE THE OTHER 5 STATES THAT DO IT.
I read the article and quite frankly don’t care. We have to set guidelines in place and enforce them to try to reduce the fraud connected with government programs.
Based on your thinking one would have to say, “why hire BP agents, the President is going to give illegals amnesty anyway.”
Way to go Tucson Weekly. You just managed to convince people that 87000 people were tested. In reality, drug tests were only give to those that checked YES on a questionaire asking if they had taken drugs in the last 30 days. 42 people checked YES. Only 16 of those passed. 54% of people did not make it through to the next round to be eligible for benefits. If it were expanded to all 87000 applicants then the failure rate would be extremely higher. Unfortunately our all knowing legislative body has not seen the wisdom to test everyone.
I wonder which politicians relative has a stake in these drug testing companies?
It is expensive, ineffective and degrading. Many of these people are at the bottom and this is kicking them while they are down.
All VA pain medication recipients are drug tested, repeatedly. Our nation’s so-called heroes and wounded warriors are treated like common criminals thanks to the Drug Enforcement Agency. Every time I am tested it makes me angry, it makes makes me feel like a common criminal and saddens me to no end. I can’t imagine my grandparents being tested for illicit drug use in today’s VA, and I doubt they would have stood for it.
Don’t treat people down on their luck like criminals. Treat criminals like criminals. Keep the drug testing where it belongs, in the garbage.
Can you see the day when we start drug testing our politicians and cops?
The article said you’re only tested if you admit to drug use in the past 30 days. Uh, can anyone guess why the numbers might be so low? If you tested all on a random basis you would get a much higher positive number. Why would anyone wanting welfare benefits admit to using drugs? I’m retired in Arizona from a state job where I interviewed many, many people who were confirmed drug users and a majority had collected welfare check, food stamps/SNAP or some other form of welfare assistance while using drugs and I’m not talking about smoking a little weed on Saturday night! I was subject to drug testing at any time as an employee of my government agency; I would be in favor of the same arrangement for politicians if it would make people feel better about testing welfare recipients.
If you are for drug testing welfare recipients as a re-requisite fr assistance, you are a tool, manipulated through fear and propaganda, by the right.
In every instance that these policies were instituted, they were instituted as part of a right-wing, tough on crime, tough on drugs, tough on entitlement queen scam re-election crusades.
In each of the cases where the state instituted these kinds of policies, more than ten times of savings of uncovering a meager 2-3% was spent on the programs.
More than tent times what they saved was spent. In most cases far more than ten times. There will, as long as there are humans, be people that will try to take advantage of the system in some way. Some of them will be addicted to drugs, some will have day jobs, wearing a suit, and drive expensive cars. They will always be just a very small portion of the huge majority of very needy people (primarily children and elderly, ya pukes) who are unnecessarily humiliated and left wanting.
It’s called jumping over dollars to get to dimes, and you should be ashamed for supporting it and falling for the fear mongering hype.
That monster feeds on hate, and you people keep it fat and happy.
Fear? Have you used drugs in the last 30 days?
Arizona is a far right state. The governor is an idiot.
I disagree with the policy but It’s too bad the article was dishonest.
26 people were stripped of their benefits, not 3.
So that’s a savings of $91,000. Still it’s chump change and a needlessly intrusive program.
I am starting to associate Maria’s name with bad journalism. Check your source (another blog) and their source (USA Today) before you publish something that is not true. There are 87,000 welfare recipients in the state. All of them were asked in a questionnaire whether they had used drugs in the last 30 days. ONLY those who answered yes were subject to further testing, not all 87,000.
I think drug testing is a stupid idea and a waste of money but you are doing more harm by republishing someone else’s bad journalism as your own. It is becoming a pattern and it makes you and the Tucson Weekly look bad. Your bad journalism is just feeding the trolls. Knock it off.
if you do illegal drugs you get no welfare !!!!!,,, test em all !!!!
Humanbean it’s not just her. It’s a daily barrage of red meat for the vegan crowd here, that has them so confused they don’t even know what’s going on.
Do you think any of them could quote the actual statement Trump made regarding criminal illegals or would they quote NBC?
One is a lie.
When over 50% of USAmericans have to take a pharmaceutical drug to “get through the day”, when psych meds are prescribed like candy — to those who can AFFORD THEM (or has the right ‘insurance’), when the average USAmerican swills his/her beer and booze in front of the TV every night, those who are rendered even MORE miserable by the USAmerican economic/social nightmare aren’t allowed to try to ease the pain?
What’s wrong with THAT picture!
The whole phony “war on drugs(tm)” is an obscene, expensive, useless endeavor and this stupid, punitive drug test law is probably the 2nd most egregious example of it…next to locking people up in the Torture Chambers of the USAmerican Criminal-Injustice Gulag!
Sharpen those pencils, boys and girls!
The study mentions 42 presumably positive (asked to retest) tests over 5 years. Let’s extrapolate the 87,000 tests in 3 years to 145,000 tests in 5 years.
Does anybody really believe that only 0.0003% of the welfare population tests positive for drugs? Hell, thousands should have tested positive for cannabis based only on the general population!
Please. There is something drastically wrong with the study methodology or it’s creators can’t apply simple mathematics.
Screw it drug test everyone. If you want to be a u.s. citizen you should have to pass a drug test. Yiu are truly ignorant if you believe welfare recipients should be drug tested
Many people (including myself) were randomly and periodically drug tested as a condition of employment. If it’s OK to test people who have to work for their money, it’s wrong to test people who don’t? And they only tested people who admitted they had used drugs recently? Seriously? If you can afford to buy illegal drugs, you don’t need welfare.
The write up says in the beginning that reasonable cause is “YES I USED DRUGS IN THE PAST 30 DAYS,” meaning 87,000 is the number of people who answered yes and were therefore tested. Perhaps re-read?????
Maria, I hope you did not stop reading after the first paragraph or two! 🙂
From USA today:
“The biggest reason is likely the way Arizona determines “reasonable cause.” Essentially, the state asks new recipients whether they’ve used drugs in the past 30 days, and only those who answer yes are tested. With no penalty for lying, a couple of dozen owned up. Of those, several tested negative; the rest failed to take the test.”
“A couple of dozen owned up….” 87,000 people were asked the question, only a “couple of dozen” answered yes. Saying that only 3 in 87000 tested positive for drugs when only a couple of dozen were physically tested is disingenuous at best.
From mic.com:,
“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.”
Your other source states that only 19 actually took the test!
Did you read your sources?
Again, I think drug testing like this is pretty worthless and dumb but it is really sad to see a journalist, obviously on the left, resorting to the kind of twisting the statistics methodology Fox News has become famous for.
What was the number who didn’t apply because they knew they’d be tested?
Does anyone know how much Arizona has actually spent between 2009-2014 implementing this policy?
Does anyone know how much Arizona has actually spent between 2009-2014 implementing this policy?
I have to wonder, can they choose who gets tested if it is a 2 adult household? What ways are there to cheat the test? I hear this so much in law enforcement if it is not a “random” test. If it is planned, they know exactly how many days they must obstain from using the drug to pass the test. What are the criteria for taking the test? Are they only tested the first time or on a random basis throughout their time on assistance?
The cost of testing was said to $500 each, that sounds like a lot of$, if everyone was tested, the welfare costs would like double, but, take your pick, I guess.
They should be random drug tests exactly like probation and parole done in the same manner and the same type of supervision. Probation and parole dept has an arrangement that costs very little.
drug testing should be across the board , are you people in politics this retarded , to have them volunteer for the testing , if you tested everyone that number of 3 in 3 years would jump to about 80% of the people on welfare, can your politicians be this stupid,
@Ldonyo Got any evidence for that or are you talking out of your ass?
U Does anyone know the number that did not apply for welfare because they may of smoked weed , knew they would be tested so they didn’t apply at all so these kids that already was poor an wondered where they would get their next meal from went hungry another day because the parents was scared to be tested .. Try using this money your wasting on testing an use it on treatment if for one reason or another drugs have pulled these families down to a point where they need help , Then offer them real help a treatment program while they get public assistance, not hand them drugs type of treatment , a Cold turkey stop counseling support an some real treatment with assistance. Only then can you say you helped these people kicking people to the curb because they use drugs don’t help know one an eventually ends up costing in medical bills , jail an probation programs ,,