It's only fair to do drug testing on welfare receipiants. Many are required to do a drug test before they are hired. It's these people that work, pay taxes, that go to welfare receipiants.
Now, I know there will be many on this board that are going to jump right in on legalizing marijuana, & compare it to the guy that goes out & buys a six-pack with his welfare check. The PROBLEM--until marijuana is legalized it's still an illegal drug--where alcohol is not.
We have so many people on welfare that are hard drug addicts. There have been 20/20 reports & others over the past decades. The welfare check keeps them on the drugs--& they stay on the welfare role to get their drugs. While they're in this cycle of self-destruction--many are incapable of even keeping a job. How do we stop it? We give them a drug test--& if they don't pass they don't get the check. Maybe then they will be forced to provide for themselves--which means having to straighten out their drug problems.
I have nothing to back up this assumption, although I do feel any employer objecting to random drug testing of employees is a person using drugs themselves. Why would an employer object to something specifically designed to protect him or her? I realize there are a tremendous amount of people out there who feel drugs such as marijuana is a harmless recreational pastime. Regardless, it's against the law and if a person is found with possession of marijuana they are subject to arrest. This thread is not the place to discuss the pros and cons of substance abuse.
However, there is hard evidence that almost every user of hard drugs started with marijuana.
gb
Gib, it's become pretty obvious that this is a subject you know little about.
First, you missed the fact that drug testing is fairly easy to bbeat for the savvy drug user. Then, the fact that the costs associated with random testing for welfare recipients would be astronomical-and those monies could be better spent on many other ideas to reduce the welfare rolls-increased educarion and vocational training programs, aggressive treatment for addicts looking to get clean, etc.
Now you've hit on one of THE strongest srguments-FOR THE LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA, that is.
Pot is often regarded as a "gateway drug"...do you know why?
Since it's illegal it's something that one has to find black market sources for...ad very often the man on the corner selling weed has other wares that he wants to sell. Very often, this is how a recreational or experimental pot user gets introduced to harder substances.
And you have people in authority who spout off about how "evil" and "detrimental" and "dangerous" marijuana is...but those who try it often find it's less detrimental and incapacitating than getting hammered on beer, which is
legal, and so in many cases they tend to disbelieve the warnings about other, harder drugs, and write it off as propaganda.
Were marijuana legalized, it would change the way that pot is percieved as opposed to other substances, it would help to draw a line-especially for young and impressionable people who are prone to experimenting...it would also open up cannels for people who smoke it occasionally to be able to purchase it without, in many cases, dealing with sellers who are essentially criminals and who are often looking to introduce their customers to harder and more addictive substances...addicts mean repeat business, don'tcha know.
Now that you better understand WHY there's sometimes a link between smoking pot and being exposed to harder drugs, I'm sure you'll join me in advocating for the legalization of marijuana to protect recreational users from having to deal with the criminal element. It's in ALL our best interests to do so, really, and-think of how that additional tax revenue would help in alot of ways right now!
