Governor Mike Foster vowed to implement random drug testing to nearly 30,000 state welfare recipients after criticizing the results of a questionnaire that determined few recipients used drugs. If approved, the state-sponsored drug testing program would likely be the largest in the nation.
“It is unprecedented for a Legislature to single out indigents and compel them to prove they are ‘drug free’ as a condition of receiving financial assistance,” said attorney Tanya Kangas, Director of Litigation for The NORML Foundation.
A 1997 law mandates drug testing for virtually all residents receiving moneys from the state, including welfare recipients, state employees, elected officials, state university students, and those holding state contracts. Thus far, efforts to implement the new law have focused almost exclusively on welfare recipients.
“There is no chance this law will survive a court challenge,” NORML Legal Committee member William Rittenberg said. In May, Rittenberg successfully argued before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that teachers and other public school employees may not be tested for drugs following an accident on the job. “This Legislature likes to provide work and easy cases to civil rights lawyers,” he said.
State officials began screening welfare recipients for drugs this summer by administering a written questionnaire that contained questions regarding substance abuse. Governor Foster sharply criticized the procedure after it netted fewer than 100 potential drug abusers out of 2,600 candidates. A Department of Social Services spokesman said the initial screening is necessary because the state cannot test welfare recipients without reasonable suspicion of drug use.
Apart from Constitutional issues, Foster’s plan also raises some serious financial questions. Rittenberg estimates that implementing urine tests to the state’s large welfare population will cost taxpayers millions of dollars.
Individuals who refuse to comply with the policy or who test positive on more than one occasion will no longer receive state aid, the 1997 law stipulates.
For more information, please contact either attorney William Rittenberg @ (504) 524-5555 or Tanya Kangas of The NORML Foundation @ (202) 483-871.
