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Unemployment Drug Test Bill Moving in Michigan

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #802)
Drug War Issues
Politics & Advocacy

A bill that would deny unemployment benefits to people who refuse to take drug tests required by employers passed the Republican-dominated Michigan Senate last week and also advanced in the House, being approved by the House Commerce Committee on a 12-4 vote.

The bill, House Bill 4952, moved in the same week Republicans also pressed ahead with another bill aimed at the state's poorest residents, one requiring food stamp recipients and welfare beneficiaries to participate in community service or other work-related activities or be cut off from assistance. The Republican-led House earlier passed bills that would require drug testing for public assistance and cutting benefits if a child is truant from school.

Democrats and civil libertarians denounced the bills as part of the GOP's "war on the poor."

"Wholesale drug testing without suspicion is simply illegal," said Shelli Weisberg, spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan. "If we're going down the road of drug testing for people who receive benefits, then we better start drug testing legislators."

Rep. Jon Switalski (D-Warrant) offered an amendment to do just that, but it failed.

"If the majority feels that drug testing for people on the public dole is good policy, then it's clearly in the interest of good public policy to test all of us on the public dole," he said. "But this is a bill about the elections in 2014 and nothing else."

Anti-tax activist Bill McMaster wondered how the drug testing bill would impact the state's medical marijuana patients.

"It's somewhat mysterious to me that you're trying to eliminate the will of the people on the medical marijuana front," he said. "A good number of people are employed successfully who are using medical marijuana."

Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Comments

Giordano (not verified)

Unless Michigan wants the cancer that is Detroit to spread to the rest of the state, it should reconsider its drug testing policies.

Nothing will drive out the top talent needed to rebuild the state’s economy like involuntary drug testing.  Silicon Valley would never pull a stunt like this, which is why it’s Silicon Valley, and not Detroit.

Tue, 09/24/2013 - 10:38pm Permalink

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