North Carolina is the latest state to find welfare recipients rarely use illegal drugs
Updated by Victoria M. Massie on February 16, 2016, 4:50 p.m. ET
Results of newly mandatory drug tests for some North Carolina welfare recipients were reported this month, proving the whole process was much ado about nothing.
The law, which requires North Carolinians who receive public aid to be screened and possibly tested for drugs, went into effect last August. Applicants are automatically referred for drug testing if they have been convicted of a felony within three years of applying to the program.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services told Vox that they screened 7,600 applicants to the Work First Program between August 3 and December 31, 2015. Among them, 150 were referred for drug testing and
21 tested positive — that's "0.3 percent of the approximate 7,600 applicants and recipients screened for drug abuse,"
the DHHS confirmed to Vox via email on Tuesday (though that number is not necessarily reflective of the total aid population).
State lawmakers assumed welfare recipients inherently engage in criminal activity, and therefore use public assistance to pay for drugs. The results suggest these ideas have little (if any) statistical grounds, and that there is no reason to isolate welfare recipients in particular.
This rate is substantially lower than both the state and national rate of illicit drug use.
The most recently collected data shows the rate of illegal drug use in North Carolina is 8 percent. The national rate of illegal drug use is 9.4 percent, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
more:
http://www.vox.com/2016/2/16/11021826/north-carolina-drugs-welfare?cid=sm_fb_msnbc
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