Opposing Viewpoints

Although there are countless individuals who oppose, drug testing welfare recipients for welfare assistance, there is quite a significant amount of people who agree that welfare applicants should be drug tested. As some believe, that welfare assistance should only be available during desperate measures. As Ranee adds in “Welfare Programs Should Include Mandatory Drug Testing,” “I totally agree with drug testing people on government assistance. I live in a town where there are so many that are on welfare, some honestly do need it and some that could work but “play” the system and spend our tax dollars on dope”(1). In other words, Ranee is arguing that some people over use the welfare system, when may not need it. However, I find her statement to be misleading. As there are many people who are in desperate need of welfare assistance. Likewise one would only know, if he or she is using illegal drugs if one witnessed or observed that welfare applicant using illegal drugs. Ranee goes on to mention, that welfare applicants who fail a drug test due to a prescribed drug, should be able to get proof from their physician. Yet, this can be time consuming for the individual and the doctor who has to go through this process. Moreover, depending on the prescribed drug one can feel as if it is an invasion of privacy for others such as the person who is giving the drug test to know. Due to this, many welfare applicants may not apply for welfare assistance if he or she knows there is a drug test involved. More importantly children will suffer at the risk of this.

Furthermore, many individuals believe that if you have the money to buy illegal drugs then you don’t need welfare assistance. You will likely not like what I am about to say, but, I highly disagree with this. As mentioned before, studies have shown that there were only a small percentage of welfare applicants who actually tested positive for illegal drugs. Therefore this indicates that many welfare applicants do not use drugs. The welfare applicants, who test positive for drugs, should not be denied welfare assistance, but rather get assistance to wean them off of drugs. Likewise, if potential employers must get tested for drug use, then welfare applicants should be tested as well. This could be consider fair, however if most welfare applicants test negative for drug use, then there is no need for such drug tests at all.

"Welfare Programs Should Include Mandatory Drug Testing." Welfare. Ed. Margaret Haerens. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 16 Nov. 2013.