Oklahoma Governor Signs Welfare Drug Test Bill

Warrantless search. No probable cause.

Supreme Court originally allowed this kind of search under some very narrowly defined terms having to do with public trust and safety (think mass transportation of passengers,etc.). This is an unwarranted invasion of privacy undertaken to enforce moral behavior. Government has crossed the line. It is destructive to the human spirit, intimidating, and expensive.

This is not a good way of regulating supply side demand for drugs. This is more like the road to slavery.

Next there will be a law to send the people who test positive to drug reeducation camps. 

Why not test for alcohol as well

If we're going to look for a symptom of a health problem and stop benefits until someone is no longer symptomatic, why just addiction?  How about excess sugar in the blood? (surely too much sugar is not a good use of public funding!)

Under the guise of protecting taxpayer money from possibly being spent on illegal drugs, taxpayers will have to pay for drug testing. Gee, I wonder how this Republican social welfare investment will pan out?  I doubt the bill includes a methodology for evaluating the program's net taxpayer savings.  How would an auditor measure illegal drug purchases prevented??  Finally, I wonder which campaign contributor will get that drug testing contract?   It seems morality is a great way to grow pork in Oklahoma...

But being an alcoholic, reeking of booze is okay?

This is a touchy subject for a lot of people. There is a good case to be made though. People who work for a living have to be drug tested. So why shouldn't those who are receiving money from the government.

Why not test everyone that walks thru the door first. 

Post a huge sign out front that you will be doing this as well. This will cut down on the idiots that spend my money on drugs!

If you need assistance, you shouldn't be using drugs. How can you afford them?

As far as all that goes, test for nicotine too. Weed out the freeloaders! Go Gov!

The state will have to get a warrant for every test they require. Then a man has the right not to testify against himself, this makes the test results inadmissible. Drug tests in themselves are unconstitutional. To be fair, all state paid employee's should have to test also.

Political Rhetoric....and Hate Mongering Christians....What about the children who have no control over an adults addictions ? Let the children go hungry ? Hypocritical Ignorance, feeds the fire of malice, in a country laden with political zealots. Many of whom enjoy their own deviances. Taking one look at Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, I form the opinion, that she herself is enjoying her prescription medications. Those droopy eyes of hers suggest as much. Or perhaps she had a couple of cocktails prior her taking her official photograph. And for the record. The number one drug being abused in America today, are prescription medications. So get off the high-horse that you hypocrites ride, and never forget the children that this Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin  wants to starve. You hate Mongering Christians; your arguments are feeble. And as you all say; "God is watching us". 

OKLAHOMA is a Horrible State with Criminal Officials getting away with pay offs and criminal activity.

GET RID OF HER OKLAHOMA GET A INDIAN IN OFFICE.

Some people are stupid sheeple when it comes to drug testing. Yeah, go urinate in a bottle like a good little slave and maybe your master will let you lick the crumbs out of his hand! All drug testing should be banned everywhere, be it government or private sector. Workplace drug testing is especially dangerous to liberty, because of the mistaken belief of many that the Constitution applies to the government but not to private employers. So then, what happens when ALL workplaces everywhere require drug testing and you can't get a job ANYWHERE without having to piss in a bottle? Is that freedom? Is it? What about those of us who don't believe in drug testing, who have libertarian or religious beliefs against it? Are we to be left with the choice of either starving or doing something which we don't believe in, which violates our conscience? Sounds eerily like the mark of the beast in Revelation 13. No man may buy or sell without having the mark of the beast. You can't buy or sell things without money, and in order to have money you have to have a job, and in order to have a job you have to take a drug test. Sounds like a drug test is sort of a mark in itself, it marks you as either a drug (or pot) user or a non-user. Anybody who objects to this will be labeled as a drug user, even though there's no evidence to back it up. Is this what we want? To live with the illusion of safety? The world has been a dangerous place since the beginning of time. No amount of drug testing will make it any safer. To think we can create a danger-free world is a delusional fantasy. I'd rather live in a world with danger and freedom than live in a world with the illusion of safety and no freedom.  

Some sheeple believe in drug testing for "safety sensitive" positions. What are "safety sensitive" positions? Who defines what they are? Some would say they are jobs which require the use of dangerous equipment, such as construction, etc. Using this same logic then, it is a very short leap to make the argument that we are all dangerous equipment operators, because after all, most of us operate one of the most dangerous pieces of heavy equipment there is on a daily basis; the automobile. Should everybody have to take a drug test to get a drivers license? Or how about renewing it? A hypothetical scenario would probably play out something like this: Some state somewhere will probably pass a law requiring new drivers (mostly young teenage kids) to take a drug test in order to get their drivers license. The kids, being ignorant that a pre-drug test America existed, and being programmed to be non-thinking slaves by the public school system, would blindly obey such a tyrannical law without question. Soon, other states would follow suit and it would be like that in all 50 states. Nobody would dare oppose it because we must all be good citizens and do our part to ensure a "drug-free public roads system" or some nonsense like that. Of course they would tell the rest of us not to worry, because the drug tests are for new drivers only. But we know how that works. The next step would be to drug test everybody every time they renew their drivers license, usually every four years, but that it would apply only to those who have been driving for ten years or less. From there it would expand to EVERYBODY who renews their drivers license, no matter how long they have been driving. It wouldn't matter if a person has been driving 30 to 40 years with an unblemished driving record because collectivism makes no such distinction, it punishes the innocent along with the guilty. Of course there would be exemptions for certain people, mainly the politicians who make the laws and other ruling class wealthy elites. Then they will find yet another problem to use as justification to expand their police state even more; certain people will stay clean for a period of time, long enough to pass their drug test and get their license renewed. Once they do, they will resume smoking their weed, so there will STILL be people driving who have marijuana in their system. The solution will be obvious; random drug testing for ALL licensed drivers. Each citizen will now live in fear, knowing that at any time, they may receive a notice in their mail from the state DOT ordering them to report to the nearest licensing center for a random drug test within the next   24 hours. Failure to comply will mean an automatic revocation of their drivers license, as will a failed drug test. Some people will then use the defense that they never received such a notice in the mail, so the next step would be for the police to come to you house ordering you to take a piss test. And who would be behind all of this? The drug testing industry, run by the corporate elites and the politicians who are of course exempt from the draconian laws they pass on the rest of us serfs. They get richer and we get poorer. The drug testing industry is an ever expanding parasite that feeds off the blood of the people, slowly sucking the lifeblood out of our freedoms and our Constitution. This is how tyrants work. Mark my words folks, this is what is coming unless we stand up and just say NO to ALL drug testing EVERYWHERE. Once you allow tyrants to get their foot in the door they will not stop until they have totally robbed us of our freedom and created a totalitarian Orwellian police state. Give them just once inch and they'll take a foot. It's time we put them out of business and throw these criminals in jail where they belong. 

People on welfare can't afford drugs. They use drugs at a FAR lower rate than the population. Florida's drug testing program has been money down a rat hole. And now Oklahoma plans to pour money down the same rat hole for no reason other than "hey, we're mean and tough!" You'd think they would be cruel to poor people in more cost-efficient ways.

So I have been reading through some of the so called responses which seem more like rebukes to the new Oklahoma State Law.  So you think that you should receive welfare and be on drugs?  I look around at the government housing additions and you see brand new vehicles that cost in the upwards of $30,000 or more.  But you live in government housing, using food stamps, a free cell phone because you are on food stamps, and medical assistance for the children you have had by a father that won't marry you so that you can still get assistance and even though he is not supposed to live with you he seems spends the night pretty frequently and neither the woman or the man have jobs.  I was a mother of two who was divorced making 7.35 and hour, not receiving child support and I could have very easily applied for assistance to help pay my families way.  However i had to get a better paying job and yes that required a drug test and offered me all the same benefits the welfare recipients are receiving so why should they not be drug tested?  Even though we are a democracy even the troops that defend you very people who are fighting this law have to pass drug tests and they don't only have a pre-employment drug test they are tested randomly to ensure that they are at the top of their game to be sharp as a tack when they are called upon. 

As an employee of any company, government or industry you should be on the top of the game to preform your work everyday.  As a welfare applicant you should want to do better some of these posts imply that poor people are not lazy they just don't know how to take advantage of opportunities presented to them.  So are they being implied to be so stupid they can't help themselves?  I don't even know how you can say that they can't take advantage of opportunities they are presented if they have applied for assistance they have taken advantage of and opportunity.  Now why not get the opportunity of learning a trade at the cost of the state also through a program which would be an opportunity?  Are they not smart enough to learn how to fish for themselves?  I have to say to Governor Mary Fallin good job and thank you for making such a strong and assertive law come to reality.  A big high five!

I live in the Boston area and let me say I know countless drug addicts look forward to their public assistance checks weekly, monthly. They all round up, rent a hotel room, and get nice and high on the tax payers dollar. Being familiar with substance abuse, we are enabling these individuals and once the enabling is stopped, many do seek help! In addition, how unconstitutional is this? Many employers require drug screening prior to hiring and some insurance companies require drug screening in hazardous areas. And I don't believe this is unconstitutional if both parties agree, for example walk into a court house and you are subject to search.  If you chose not to be searched "you walk out."  I'm willing to help anyone, but I will not contribute to their self destruction.  Just sayin!  Thanks

We are drug tested at my work to stay employed and receive a salary.... how is this different?

Wow.  Some of these comments are just killing me!  If you cannot pass a drug test you should not get public assistance.  Period. 

As for the comment about kids going hungry because their parent uses...it states in the article (quote) "Child-only cases and cases where the parent is underage would not have to be drug tested. If a parent is denied benefits, the bill allows for payments to be made to an alternative payee." 

So, it's your right to do drugs and not be accountable for that?  Fine, go right ahead, on your own dime.  If you want assistance, pee in the cup.  Drug tests are not that expensive any longer.  Government pisses away enough money on more foolish things than this. 

You don't want to go through the red tape the government has then go get food at the local food bank.