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Mandantory Drug Tests

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Personally I'm for it, but I like the volunteering for the community idea better. Here's why. Drug tests are expensive, involve lab work and the handling of bodily fluids, etc, all of which have a high price tag for something that's easily fudged and cheated. Secondly, in california marijuana is more or less classified as medicine. So you can't really test for a substance like marijuana without getting into the touchy area of invading people's right to privacy regarding medical records, including the medicines they take. EVEN if they are abusing the drugs (it doesn't have to be marijuana), if the person has a prescription then you're violating their right to privacy. Now I'm all for testing for drugs like crack, meth, heroine, and other illegal and highly addictive substances, but those are easily faked and also they only remain in a person's system for a couple of days. So while the notion of testing these people for drugs is a good one, I don't think it's a very effective way of detecting fraud and abuse.
 
Personally I'm for it, but I like the volunteering for the community idea better. Here's why. Drug tests are expensive, involve lab work and the handling of bodily fluids, etc, all of which have a high price tag for something that's easily fudged and cheated. Secondly, in california marijuana is more or less classified as medicine. So you can't really test for a substance like marijuana without getting into the touchy area of invading people's right to privacy regarding medical records, including the medicines they take. EVEN if they are abusing the drugs (it doesn't have to be marijuana), if the person has a prescription then you're violating their right to privacy. Now I'm all for testing for drugs like crack, meth, heroine, and other illegal and highly addictive substances, but those are easily faked and also they only remain in a person's system for a couple of days. So while the notion of testing these people for drugs is a good one, I don't think it's a very effective way of detecting fraud and abuse.

+1 to all of this.

I'm also wondering how many people advocating drug testing for assistance have ever had a problem with addiction themselves. Do you really think that meth, crack, and heroin users intended to destroy their lives once they get past the experimentation stage to hardcore addiction? These people need help; not for society to turn our backs on them.
 
Personally I'm for it, but I like the volunteering for the community idea better. Here's why. Drug tests are expensive, involve lab work and the handling of bodily fluids, etc, all of which have a high price tag for something that's easily fudged and cheated.

Community service is expensive and easily fudged too. You have to pay somebody to administer the program: Either a government bureaucracy or private enterprise. If it gets outsourced to the private sector, it will attract countless scam artists who will simply pocket the administrative costs.

Whenever you try to get tough with people by making them jump through arbitrary hoops, it's always a scam magnet. Let's make teachers get continuing education in order to maintain their licenses. Okay, in Illinois, teachers were getting credit for studying math by spending a day at a casino, and a business was collecting a fee from the state. Let's make welfare recipients prove that they are employed. Okay, in Wisconsin, that one was scammed by setting up fake day care centers and collecting fees from the state.

Why do we trust the government to manage the lives of poor people, but not to manage the health care system?
 
Automatic drug testing for ALL on a monthly basis sound ridiculous? So does drug testing for people receiving housing assistance, food stamps or State medical assistance programs.

Community service? How about paid employment or paid training to get paid employment? I'm sure there are plenty of groups, including private companies, that would love access to mandated free labor pools, but come on guys. I don't want to use the "S" word, but that's where the free labor things ends up going.

Times are very tough right now, but eventually, they will improve. Let’s not punish, bash or denigrate the hardest hit from this bad economic situation. They already are going through enough sh1t as it is. Don't look to make things even harder. Peace! ;)


PS: "I won't pee in a cup for you, but if you hold out your hands and cup them I'll pee there for you. Test that!" ;)
 
Automatic drug testing for ALL on a monthly basis sound ridiculous? So does drug testing for people receiving housing assistance, food stamps or State medical assistance programs.

Community service? How about paid employment or paid training to get paid employment? I'm sure there are plenty of groups, including private companies, that would love access to mandated free labor pools, but come on guys. I don't want to use the "S" word, but that's where the free labor things ends up going.

Times are very tough right now, but eventually, they will improve. Let’s not punish, bash or denigrate the hardest hit from this bad economic situation. They already are going through enough sh1t as it is. Don't look to make things even harder. Peace! ;)


PS: "I won't pee in a cup for you, but if you hold out your hands and cup them I'll pee there for you. Test that!" ;)

+1 Yeah. I like this better.
 
The average age is about 36...

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Series Id: CES0500000003Seasonally AdjustedSuper Sector: Total privateIndustry: Total privateNAICS Code: -Data Type: AVERAGE HOURLY EARNINGS OF ALL EMPLOYEES


Download: Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Annual
2006 20.07 20.15 20.14 20.21 20.30 20.32 20.42 20.49 20.50 20.55
2007 20.60 20.65 20.80 20.85 20.89 20.99 21.05 21.04 21.13 21.14 21.17 21.23
2008 21.25 21.29 21.43 21.43 21.52 21.60 21.66 21.74 21.80 21.84 21.93 21.96
2009 22.01 22.05 22.08 22.11 22.14 22.16 22.20 22.28 22.30 22.35 22.39 22.38
2010 22.45 22.48 22.48 22.50 22.55 22.55 22.59 22.65 22.68 22.74 22.75(P) 22.78(P)
P : preliminary

Edit: Were you referring to wage or the average "age" of American workers?
 
From the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Hrm, I'd seen different numbers that put it at just under $20/hr, but that's still fairly close.


Edit: Were you referring to wage or the average "age" of American workers?

The average hourly wage in the US is just under $20/hr,

The average age is about 36...


(I was pointing out the average age to Bassman316 to say that he may be earning below the national average, but he's also at an earlier point in his career than average as well).
 
drug testing in the workplace sounds like a great idea until you're the only one left working there

for the record I've never done drugs and never will, but this statement, while over simplified, is close to the truth on the matter.

im fine with that. the 10 co-workers i have left will be my kind of people. at least now i dont have to listen to everyone talk about how high they got yesterday
 
I think this is the crux of why I disagree with the original post. How many kids have you seen waste their college money vs. the total number of kids going through college in the time that you've taken notice? I doubt you've seen enough for a true sample to take. I've personally seen a lot of kids go through college using their money only for tuition and school-related things, and had a job to support their drinking and cigarettes and tattoos.

as a young person of the world, from what i can tell, its damn near everyone. young people are stupid. more stupid than any other kind of people. and i havent met that many people on financial aid with jobs.

The same goes with the assumption that the majority of people on welfare are using their money for drugs. As Fdeck said, the cost of drug testing everyone on welfare/etc most likely wouldn't cover the savings we'd make by catching the people using their money for drugs. Plus, how big of a difference does it make? if you catch them on drugs/with drugs, you send them to jail--where your tax dollars are still providing for them. So where is the benefit?

its certainly not the majority. but ive certainly got it out for i imagine is about the 10% that do. the way i see it, at least 10% of people between the ages of 12 and 35 are on drugs, and they dont deserve a bit of help from anyone as a consequence.

think of the people that lie to GET such benefits in the first place. i feel like if we put enough stipulations on who gets MY tax dollars, fewer will be taken out. id gladly fork over money for drug testing to ensure that those getting the rest of my money are worthy. in time, im certain that good will be done.

those who fail the test get no money for some predetermined amount of time until they can re-apply. we can put those who fail on trial.

those that we catch WITH drugs... well my ideas for what to do with them is unconstitutional, but i think we need much greater consequences. if it were up to me, we'd be going at them southest asian style.
 
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