drug testing for people with food stamps ???

[bsblady01]

do you agree with the new florida law, that they will start giving a drug test to get food stamps. I agree with this new law. I have to take a drug test to work so you should have to take a drug test to get free food.

they are also going to change what you can buy with stamps, like you will not be able to buy expensive meats or seafood and no junk food.

 

[lizabu]

No. I don't. I remember reading about someplace that had drug tests for people on welfare. It turned out that there were very few welfare recipients using drugs and the cost of the program greatly out priced the savings of cutting off people who used drugs. For the most part I think children get the most benefit from food stamps. They are the ones who lose out if their family is denied food stamps. They don't get to pick their parents.

 

[BigAlsGal]

Don't really agree. Seems like an appropriate course of action but the ones who are going to suffer are the poor kids of these drug addicted losers.

Plus the cost of drug testing will probably cost more to test them than to just give them the food stamps.

 

[kimblebee]

I don't agree with it. Up here, based on income, certain families get monthly cheques to help with child raising expenses.
its not just for low income either..my family income last year was Middle of the road and we receive a monthly cheque. It's not as much as others get but it's also not the lowest amount either.
There's also a quarterly tax refund called the GST refund..it's also based on income. There's no drug test required for those and they are government 'handouts' so food stamps (we don't have those), social assistance/welfare shouldn't be required to test either.

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

I don't agree with this. First off... It's not like cash assistance, it's FOOD. Second... A lot of that food feeds KIDS. It's not really the same now where people can sell the food stamps to people for cash. I mean, there are some sketchy places that kind of do like trades, but they are shut down pretty quickly. And like others have said, not as many people on public assistance are drug addicts or "welfare queens" as people think. Those are just the ones you hear about. You never even notice the millions of other people who use them how they are intended. (I'm currently a human services major and am learning so much about this kind of stuff right now so it's all pretty fresh in my mind.)

 

[msjprincess]

I thought the Florida law was overturned years ago. Is there another one?

http://jacksonville.com/reason/fact...check-florida-drug-testing-welfare-recipients

 

[bsblady01]

what makes me nuts is they have an iphone and whip out a big stack of cash to buy cigs and beer, but they have two carts of food and pay with a stamps card. one of the big issues are here is people selling their stamps for drugs or other things. they need to change they way the system works and the amount of time you can be on them.

 

[msjprincess]

What constitutes an "expensive piece of meat'?

 

[bsblady01]

I thought the Florida law was overturned years ago. Is there another one?

http://jacksonville.com/reason/fact...check-florida-drug-testing-welfare-recipients

there is a new law they are trying to pass to start early next year

 

[msjprincess]

what makes me nuts is they have an iphone and whip out a big stack of cash to buy cigs and beer, but they have to carts of food and pay with a stamps card. one of the big issues are here is people selling their stamps for drugs or other things. they need to change they way the system works and the amount of time you can be on them.

Of course they do.

I think you left out the part about them driving off in an Escalade.

 

[bsblady01]

What constitutes an "expensive piece of meat'?

good question

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

what makes me nuts is they have an iphone and whip out a big stack of cash to buy cigs and beer, but they have to carts of food and pay with a stamps card. one of the big issues are here is people selling their stamps for drugs or other things. they need to change they way the system works and the amount of time you can be on them.

I believe there are time limits and employment requirements in most places(if you can't find employment there are employment assistance places you have to go to for so many hours a week).

 

[PlutoPony]

So is the general concept here that if you're going to get money from the US government, you need to be drug free to qualify?
If so, the home mortgage interest deduction costs us a WHOLE lot more than welfare recipients get, why don't we drug test them?
Just a guess but I'd bet a substantially higher % of those taking the interest deduction test positive for drugs than welfare recipients. It's a simple matter of $ - those with a house have much more disposable income than people at or below the poverty line

 

[lizabu]

what makes me nuts is they have an iphone and whip out a big stack of cash to buy cigs and beer, but they have to carts of food and pay with a stamps card. one of the big issues are here is people selling their stamps for drugs or other things. they need to change they way the system works and the amount of time you can be on them.

This is a disgusting stereotype and not typical in any way.

 

[msjprincess]

Arizona has drug testing for people on public assistance. In a 3 year time period they tested 87,000 people. You know how many people tested positive? One. http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRang...er-money-when-drug-testing-welfare-recipients

 

[bsblady01]

So is the general concept here that if you're going to get money from the US government, you need to be drug free to qualify?
If so, the home mortgage interest deduction costs us a WHOLE lot more than welfare recipients get, why don't we drug test them?
Just a guess but I'd bet a substantially higher % of those taking the interest deduction test positive for drugs than welfare recipients. It's a simple matter of $ - those with a house have much more disposable income than people at or below the poverty line

I agree

 

[jt'smom]

I live in Florida and I think it's ridiculous. It will cost a fortune and based on the welfare testing experiment, yield little results. I think it's bunk to say that you have to drug test to work, so food stamp recipients should have to test to get food. First off, the biggest group of individuals that SNAP benefits help are children, so should THEY have to be tested? How stupid is that?! And as far as the whole steak/junk food thing, when I'm standing in Publix or Winn Dixie and I see people use SNAP cards, it's usually harried moms who are buying as much cheap food as possible so their kids don't starve! And as a disclaimer, so people don't assume "Big Lib, Big Lib", I've been a registered Republican for my entire life.

 

[low-key]

no, its getting to hard to be poor

 

[bsblady01]

This is a disgusting stereotype and not typical in any way.

I worked in a grocery store in high school and college and the things I saw on the first of the month would make mad

 

[bsblady01]

what also makes me mad is the people that need the help can't get it. I have a friend who only works part time and they just found out her husband has cancer, she was told that because she works 20 hours a week they won't help her while her husband is out of work. this is just sad.