The Daily Show has done the best journalism to date on the growing trend of opportunistic lawmakers introducing legislation to drug test people who receive unemployment benefits.
Last night, Daily Show correspondent Aasif Mandvi did a powerful and humorous segment that features elected officials, including Florida Governor Rick Scott, hypocritically forcing poor people to piss in a cup for money to feed their children, but refusing to take the piss test themselves.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Poor Pee-Ple | ||||
| ||||
The segment successfully counters stereotypes and misinformation (by showing that people who receive benefits do not use drugs more than the general public) and the myth that these tests are about saving taxpayer money (these programs actually cost much more money than they save).
The segment also features Luis Lebron, a navy veteran who is being represented by the ACLU in a lawsuit against the Florida law. Lebron, a father of two, explains that he is unwilling to submit to a drug test because it is a violation of his constitutional right to privacy under the 4th amendment.
Opportunistic elected officials around the country are capitalizing on Americans' economic insecurity by bringing back the "welfare queen" stereotype that President Reagan used so successfully to stigmatize the poor -- instead of looking at the real fiscal waste, like keeping more than 500,000 people behind bars for nothing more than a nonviolent drug offense.
There are now dozens of states that have introduced legislation to drug test people who receive welfare or unemployment benefits -- and more states will surely follow. We need to combat these divisive laws that erode privacy, waste taxpayer money and demonize people who are struggling the most.
Tony Newman is the director of media relations at the Drug Policy Alliance (www.drugpolicy.org)
Follow Tony Newman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TonyNewmanDPA
Something else that's just my personal opinion: What's the big deal? How is this different from having a sample taken at the doctor's, or getting your blood checked before donating? Sure, it might seem "undignified", but seriously, look at this objectively and professionally. It's not that bad.
Let me guess, you're a republican?
And second, drug-testing is not required of all tax-payers. In fact, The Bureau Of Labor Statistics showed a decline in mandatory work-place drug testing. And why is that? Partly because corporate lawyers saw that it was proving difficult to get over the humps of the 4th and the 5th Amendments.
Thirdly, science has shown us that it is stressful to be poor, that mental health services are dramatically unavailable to the poor, and therefore, the poor will do what they can to self-medicate. Maybe we could choose to solve that problem before we tackle welfare fraud and abuse. Just a suggestion.
But, you pay for unemployment.
It's beyond absurd to deny people their own money.
What they need to do is keep on these people and give them every resource to help them find a job to where they don't *need* public resources. Shaming people is not the answer. Using the public resources to help retrain people (or in some cases just to educate people) is enough. And if we have people who care enough looking towards that task being done, we don't *need* to waste money on drug testing people just to appease hypocritical Republicans.
does the drug tests.