Florida Gov. Rick Scott drug testing welfare recipients fail

[Riot]

Rick Scott’s Drug Law Isn’t Saving Florida Much Money

When Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) signed the law requiring welfare recipients to pass annual drug tests to collect benefits, he justified the likely unconstitutional law by saying it would save the state money by keeping drug users from using public money to subsidize their drug habits.

Drug use, Scott claimed, was higher among welfare recipients than among the rest of the population.

Preliminary results from the state’s first round of testing, however, has seemingly proven both of those claims false.

Only 2 percent of welfare recipients failed drug tests, meaning the state must reimburse the cost of the $30 drug tests to the 96 percent of recipients who passed drug tests (two percent did not take the tests).

Cost of the tests averages about $30. Assuming that 1,000 to 1,500 applicants take the test every month, the state will owe about $28,800-$43,200 monthly in reimbursements to those who test drug-free.

The state also has to pay for defense of the law.

The ACLU is still considering a lawsuit challenging the law’s constitutionality, Newton said. If the ACLU or anyone else were to challenge the law, the lawsuit would likely succeed.

As for Scott’s second claim, that drug use is higher among welfare recipients, the test results also show that to be false.

While only 2 percent of welfare recipients failed drug tests, a 2008 study by the Office of National Drug Control Policy found that approximately 8 percent of Floridians age 12 and up had used illegal drugs in the last month, and 9.69 percent had smoked marijuana in the last year.

From Think Progress