Fla. welfare applicants less likely to use drugs
By BILL KACZOR , 09.28.11, 08:23 AM EDT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Preliminary figures on a new Florida law
requiring drug tests for welfare applicants show that they are less
likely than other people to use drugs, not more. One famous Floridian
suggests that it's the people who came up with the law who should be
submitting specimens.

Columnist and best-selling author Carl Hiaasen offered to pay for drug
testing for all 160 members of the Florida Legislature in what he called
"a patriotic whiz-fest." Several of the law's supporters say they're on
board.

"There is a certain public interest in going after hypocrisy," Hiaasen
said Tuesday, two days after he made his proposal in a Miami Herald column.

"Folks that are applying for DCF (Department of Children and Families)
money normally wouldn't be standing in that line, and on top of that
humiliation they now get to pee in a cup so they can get grocery money
for their kids," Hiaasen told The Associated Press in an interview at
his Vero Beach home.

Gov. Rick Scott and other supporters of the law - the only one of its
kind currently on the books in the U.S. - say the tests will save the
state cash by weeding out people who would use welfare money on drugs.
Critics say that just a few months after it went into effect, the law
has already refuted the idea that people receiving public assistance are
more likely to use drugs.

Preliminary figures show that about 2.5 percent of up to 2,000
applicants for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families have tested
positive since the law went into effect in July. Another 2 percent
declined to take the test, Department of Children and Families officials
say.
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I'll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one.