WELFARE DRUG TESTING A SLAP IN THE FACE OF FLORIDA'S NEEDIEST

The Issue: Welfare Recipients Must Now Submit to Drug Tests.

Political Grandstanding: 1; The Good Of The People: 0

That's the scorecard the Florida Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott
racked up with their little gamesmanship in pushing through a new
welfare drug testing law that is nothing short of punitive,
prejudiced and lacking in merit.

Under the new measure, anyone seeking state welfare assistance would
have to submit to and pay for a drug test, with the costs reimbursed
if the applicant passes.

Championed by conservatives as some sort of fiscal responsibility
measure, Scott sanctimoniously declared in signing the law: "While
there are certainly legitimate needs for public assistance, it is
unfair for Florida taxpayers to subsidize drug addiction."

The insinuation, of course, is that being poor is somehow synonymous
with lawlessness and moral weakness, as if people in need of
financial assistance are inherently susceptible to drug use and
addiction. They're poor; therefore, they must be out boozing and
drugging, the prejudicial thinking seems to go.

The fact that Florida itself researched this very issue in 1998 and
found no such connection between financial need and drug use doesn't
seem to matter to the conservative lawmakers scurrying to curry
political favor among their cheering right-wing base.

State officials estimate the costs of the initial screenings at $10,
but one state Department of Children & Families official said they
could cost as much as $40 - a hefty sum for an impoverished family
already struggling just to put food on the table.

Now, in order to get the help they need, the poor - whose ranks are
swelling in the bad economy - are being told that their financial
status alone makes them suspect, and to prove themselves worthy of
assistance, they must front some cash and show the world they're not on drugs.

It is an affront to human decency, especially in the absence of any
sign of a true problem, and it raises obvious conflicts with past
court rulings calling universal drug testing unconstitutional. The
American Civil Liberties Union wasted no time in filing a lawsuit
seeking to overturn the measure.

But whether this ugly law passes legal muster - at a very real cost
to taxpayers footing the bill to defend the measure in court -
appears irrelevant to those who championed it. This is about scoring
political points, not ensuring fiscal responsibility, or passing good laws.

In the end, we could all be paying more, and Florida will be the poorer for it.

BOTTOM LINE: An ugly day in Florida.