Drug Testing

Despite the fact that I support full drug legalization, I have absolutely no problem with the recent Florida law to test welfare recipients for drugs and remove benefits from those who are using them. There is a huge difference between using punishing something with state-sanctioned violence and punishing it by the removal of state assistance. Access to taxpayer money should be a privilege, not a right, and you should lose that privilege if you are spending the money on recreational chemicals.

I mentioned in my last post that we need ways to make strong social statements against drugs without making them illegal and instigating violence against people who use them. This is an excellent way to do it. If you spend your own money on drugs and your habit does not cause any problems for anyone else, you should be free to do as you like. But if you have demonstrated an inability to support yourself without taxpayer money, you should have your behavior monitored and controlled by the state. Ideally this should be done in the spirit of medical care and self-improvement rather than punishment. But the simple fact is that if you have money to spend on drugs, you are clearly getting too much money from the state.