DRUG TESTS ESSENTIAL TO WELFARE REFORM

I couldn't disagree more with your Oct. 25 editorial "Drug Tests: Mandatory
welfare screening violates privacy rights."

For the past 10 years, the goal of Michigan's welfare reform has been to do
more than just provide temporary financial assistance to those who need it.
Instead, we have worked to help people develop the life skills and offered
the job training they need to move back into the work force and off
government support. Parenting support, transportation assistance and child
day care are complements to the job training we provide.

Ultimately, drug use stands in the way of all these efforts. We have an
obligation to help people who are gripped by drug addiction and are unable
to take the first step in confronting that addiction. Drugs are harmful not
only to those who use them, but also to the children and the loved ones.

This is why I support drug testing for welfare recipients, and why I support
providing effective drug treatment programs for those who test positive. I
am also unafraid to take the position that those who refuse to take a drug
test, or fail to participate in the drug treatment programs we provide,
should not receive any further support from Michigan taxpayers.

General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., DaimlerChrysler Corp. and the State of
Michigan are just some of the large employers in the state who require drug
testing. Many welfare recipients, once off welfare, will be required to
submit to drug testing as a condition of employment. To suggest that an
individual receiving a check from the state for employment should be drug
tested while an individual receiving public assistance from the state should
not is nonsense.

Subsidizing drug use is wrong. Turning a blind eye to addiction by refusing
to support drug testing is also wrong. Neither of these positions is in the
best interest of the taxpayers of this state nor the recipients, families
and children of those who need help from the state to pull their lives back
together.

Dick Posthumus, Lieutenant Governor, State of Michigan

Lansing