States Adding Drug Test as Hurdle for Welfare

Steve Hebert for The New York Times — With the electricity shut off, Nariah, 3, ate a fruit cup for dinner last week in Kansas City, Mo. Her mother, Nicole, 22, may soon have to pass a drug test to maintain state aid to her family.

By A. G. SULZBERGER
NYT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As more Americans turn to government programs for refuge from a merciless economy, a growing number are encountering a new price of admission to the social safety net: a urine sample.

Policy makers in three dozen states this year proposed drug testing for people receiving benefits like welfare, unemployment assistance, job training, food stamps and public housing. Such laws, which proponents say ensure that tax dollars are not being misused and critics say reinforce stereotypes about the poor, have passed in states including Arizona, Indiana and Missouri.

In Florida, people receiving cash assistance through welfare have had to pay for their own drug tests since July, and enrollment has shrunk to its lowest levels since the start of the recession.

The law, the most far-reaching in the nation, provoked a lawsuit last month from the American Civil Liberties Union, arguing that the requirement represents an unreasonable search and seizure.

(More here.)