TESTS VIOLATE RECIPIENTS' RIGHTS

The 1996 Welfare Reform Act authorized -- but did not require -- states
to impose mandatory drug testing as a prerequisite to receiving state
welfare assistance. In Florida and Michigan, the only two states where
drug testing for welfare recipients has been tried, the courts have
found that suspicionless searches of people -- simply because they are
requesting assistance from the state -- are a violation of their Fourth
Amendment rights.

In Georgia, any proposed legislation that would require drug testing
for applicants for state-funded benefits is likely to face the same
fate. Being poor and in need in this country does not mean you forfeit
your constitutional rights.

There is no reason to believe that drug use among recipients of aid is
greater than in the general population. All evidence is to the
contrary. In Florida, U.S. District Court Judge Mary Scriven noted in
her injunction of Florida's drug-testing legislation that the state's
own demonstration project to find drug use among welfare recipients
failed to uncover evidence of rampant drug use, concluding that drug
use did not adversely impact the goals of the welfare programs and did
not save the state money.

Scriven also noted that although the state asserted that the public
health and crime risks associated with drug use are beyond dispute,
"the evidence suggests that those risks are less prevalent among
[Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] applicants."

Before Michigan's attempt to impose mandatory drug testing on welfare
recipients ended by court order in 2000, there was a five-week period
of testing that revealed only 21 positive tests from 268 applicants;
all but three positive results were from marijuana. That 8 percent
number is consistent with the general population. In addition, the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources found that 70 percent of
illegal drug users between the ages of 18 and 49 are employed full
time.

What are the unintended consequences of this misguided attempt to save
the state money?

Perhaps the most important is that more children are likely to go
hungry. There are more than 500,000 Georgia children receiving food
stamps. At a cost of $20 per test, the cost of testing 100,000 parents
at a 92 percent pass rate is more than $1.8 million.

That would feed a lot of children at the paltry food-stamp rate of
$1.50 a meal.