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Simplepowa
In Pursuit of Knowledge


Registered: 03/06/09
Posts: 4,310
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North Carolina Welfare Drug Testing Bill Passes
#18642120 - 07/31/13 11:57 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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by Phillip Smith, July 29, 2013, 05:45pm
A bill that would require public benefits recipients to take a drug test upon suspicion they are using drugs passed won final approval in the North Carolina legislature late last week and now heads for the governor's desk. The bill had passed both houses of the legislature earlier this month, but had to win a concurrence vote in the Senate after the House amended it.
Last Thursday, the Senate gave final approval to the bill, passing it 32-4 without debate. That despite concerns raised in the House that it would push drug users away without encouraging them to get help.
The bill, House Bill 392, requires participants in the state's Work First program, which offers cash benefits, training, and support services to families, to submit to drug testing if authorities have a reasonable suspicion they are on drugs. The bill also requires stringent background checks to ensure recipients don't have probation or parole violations or outstanding felony warrants.
Republican senators amended the bill to make it more palatable by inserting language clarifying that drug test results would remain confidential and that people who tested positive would be referred to treatment resources. They also deleted language that required county employees to tell potential recipients they wouldn't be drug tested if they didn't apply for Work First.
"We've worked really, really hard to make this bill fair," said bill sponsor Sen. Dean Arp (R) during debate earlier this month. "I hope my colleagues feel we tried to address their concerns."
He didn't convince Sen. Ellie Kinnaird (D-Chapel Hill), the only senator who took to the floor to speak against the bill before it passed the first time.
"There is no evidence that people who are getting Work First checks are more likely... to be drug users," she said. "This is just a stigma, and one more kicking people when they are down."
And it is a burden on county social service departments and the taxpayers, Kinnaird said. "It's an added burden time-wise, paperwork-wise," she said. "And it's an unfunded mandate."
Imposing drug testing on public benefits recipients has been an increasingly popular move among Republican-dominated state legislatures in the last few years. States such as Florida that have passed bills to require mandatory, suspicionless drug testing have, however, run into problems with the federal courts, which view drug testing as a search under the meaning of the Fourth Amendment and thus require probable cause or a search warrant.
A second generation of public benefits drug testing bills, such as the one passed last week in North Carolina, seeks to get around the constitutional issue by specifying that only beneficiaries who somehow arouse particularized suspicion of drug use are subject to testing. Those laws have yet to be challenged in the federal courts.
Raleigh, NC United States
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2013/jul/29/north_carolina_welfare_drug_test
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Another one taking this path...
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Carl Sagan - "Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people." --- Robert Pirsig - "When one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion." --- Brian Cox - "[One] problem with today’s world is that everyone believes they have the right to express their opinion AND have others listen to it. The correct statement of individual rights is that everyone has the right to an opinion, but crucially, that opinion can be roundly ignored and even made fun of, particularly if it is demonstrably nonsense."
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NetDiver
Wandering Mindfuck


Registered: 08/24/09
Posts: 6,024
Loc: Everywhere and Nowhere
Last seen: 1 year, 9 months
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Re: North Carolina Welfare Drug Testing Bill Passes [Re: Simplepowa]
#18642180 - 08/01/13 12:29 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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So incredibly stupid...
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bourgeo
Pharmacologist & Biochemist



Registered: 02/10/12
Posts: 658
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Re: North Carolina Welfare Drug Testing Bill Passes [Re: NetDiver] 1
#18642626 - 08/01/13 05:37 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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They tried this in Florida and other states and it DID NOT WORK. Governance is not based on any statistical data and our government is totally illegitimate.
-------------------- Seraphically Free From Taint of Personality
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anne halonium
jaguarette



Registered: 05/07/13
Posts: 1,908
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Re: North Carolina Welfare Drug Testing Bill Passes [Re: bourgeo]
#18644714 - 08/01/13 04:06 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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my understanding, in florida, was that the govenor , looked stupider than usual, and, it was essentially nullified.
the entire gubbamint, is packed with moronic filth. its all the things, youd expect from a corporati paid off, corrupt fascist police state, on the edge of collapse.........
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Edited by anne halonium (08/01/13 04:07 PM)
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bourgeo
Pharmacologist & Biochemist



Registered: 02/10/12
Posts: 658
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Re: North Carolina Welfare Drug Testing Bill Passes [Re: anne halonium]
#18652261 - 08/02/13 10:54 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
anne halonium said: my understanding, in florida, was that the govenor , looked stupider than usual, and, it was essentially nullified.
the entire gubbamint, is packed with moronic filth. its all the things, youd expect from a corporati paid off, corrupt fascist police state, on the edge of collapse.........
I agree with all of what you said except the part about the system being on the edge of collapse. There are too many pawns benefitting from the system to let it fall. Too many people hypnotized into slavery.
-------------------- Seraphically Free From Taint of Personality
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