MA: Mideast Welfare Drug Screening (Vetoed)

[TJ in Oregon]

I'd like to point out that this bill does not require this of every welfare recipient, only those with prior drug convinctions. I would support removing that detail, but doing so would likely result in a court battle and also might be a but tougher to pass, and I won't be around very long to support this.

[TJ in Oregon]

Section 4 is based on the Florida Drug Screening Law that was recently struck down in court (for reasons unrelated to that section). It would allow the children of a parent who fails a drug test to still receive benefits, but those benefits must be claimed through another adult. Perhaps the wording should have been clearer. It should probably be ammended to read that the adult to receive the benefits may be named by the parent/guardian if neither parent or legal guardian is able to receive them. I, however, no longer have that power. If you strike away that section, the bill would become somewhat useless because it would still allow recipients who fail a drug test to take benefit money for their children so they would still in effect be paid by the system. The point of circumventing a parent but still providing the children with benefits is to prevent the parent using drugs from taking benefits.

The reason why the Florida law was struck down is because the court found it an unlawful search to require drug tests on every welfare recipient becuase the government has no reasonable suspicion that any given recipient is using illegal substances. That is not to say an Atlasian court would rule the same way and not to say the Florida ruling may not be overturned in real life either. Of course, if anyone in the assembly would like to attempt such a law, I will be willing to help you defend it in court, but that's your decision.

[TJ in Oregon]

Would it be appropriate to include something about alcohol in this, or no?

I suppose you could breathalize them when they show up for the screening, but other than that, what would you want to do?