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<p>Tennessee’s first year of drug testing welfare recipients
uncovered drug use by less than 0.2 percent of all applicants
for the state’s public assistance system.</p>
<p>The state implemented the testing regime in the summer of
2014, adding three questions about narcotics use to the
application form for aid. Anyone who answers “yes” to any of
the three drug questions must take a urine test or have their
application thrown away immediately. Anyone who fails a urine
test must complete drug treatment and pass a second test, or
have their benefits cut off for six months.</p>
<p>In total, just <a
href="http://wmot.org/post/tenn-completes-first-year-welfare-drug-testing#stream/0">1.6
percent of the 28,559 people</a> who applied for Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits in the first
year of testing answered one of the three screening questions
positively. Out of the 468 people who peed in a state-funded
cup, 11.7 percent flunked the test.</p>
<p>With 55 people testing positive for drugs out of an applicant
pool of nearly 30,000, Tennessee’s testing system uncovered
that a whopping 0.19 percent of those who applied for aid were
drug users. Ultimately, 32 applicants were denied benefits for
failing to complete the state’s mandatory drug rehab process
for those who test positive.</p>
<p>Tennessee officials say the year of testing cost $11,000, or
$200 per failed drug test. But that only accounts for what the
state paid to the outside vendor who conducted the actual
tests, excluding staff hours that went into processing the new
application materials and managing the logistics of testing
those who gave an affirmative answer to a screening question.</p>
<p>Seven states that drug test welfare recipients have now spent
about $1 million on the tests, according to <a
href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/02/26/3624447/tanf-drug-testing-states/">previous
ThinkProgress research</a>. Each state has found drug usage
rates among welfare applicants to be far below the national
average of 9.4 percent for all Americans. </p>
<p>All of these states use a screening questionnaire similar to
Tennessee’s, in part because wholesale testing of all
applicants has been ruled unconstitutional. The ratio of
failed tests among those who actually submit a urine sample is
of course higher, but the fact remains that the systems these
states erected to root out <a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/05/states-want-drug-tests-for-welfare-recipients-thats-a-terrible-idea/">the
imaginary scourge of welfare drug use</a> have produced
vanishingly small percentages of drug use among those who seek
public assistance.</p>
<p>The drug screenings are widely criticized among both civil
liberties advocates and drug abuse experts. Canada’s Centre
for Addiction and Mental Health warns the tests “<a
href="http://www.camh.ca/en/hospital/about_camh/influencing_public_policy/public_policy_submissions/Pages/manddrugtesting.aspx">further
entrench the stigma</a> which erroneously links drug
addiction with economic need” and points out that 70 percent
of drug users are employed. The American Civil Liberties Union
has lodged legal complaints about the policies, but also
pointed out that their premise is flawed because welfare
recipients are <a
href="https://www.aclu.org/drug-testing-public-assistance-recipients-condition-eligibility?redirect=drug-law-reform/drug-testing-public-assistance-recipients-condition-eligibility">no
likelier than other Americans</a> to use drugs.</p>
<p>There’s a moralizing strain to the idea that people seeking
the public’s help should first have their choices and behavior
audited. Requiring the poor to jump through such hoops is <a
href="http://www.vice.com/read/most-welfare-recipients-dont-use-drugs-so-why-do-states-keep-drug-testing-them-1229">persistently
popular with voters</a>. But the conceit underlying the
tests <a
href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/12/18/3081791/welfare-recipient-spending/">ignores
the realities of poverty</a>. Low-income families spend a
far greater percentage of their meager incomes on necessities,
and less on luxuries of all kinds, than do wealthier families.</p>
<p><em>This article originally stated that 1.9 percent of all
applicants failed a drug test. In fact 0.19 percent of all
applicants failed a test.</em></p>
<div class="tags"><strong>Tags</strong>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/tag/drugs/">Drugs</a></li>
<li><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/tag/poverty/">Poverty</a></li>
<li><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/tag/tennessee/">Tennessee</a></li>
<li><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/tag/welfare/">Welfare</a></li>
</ul>
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