Annaliza Bustos
Suzanna Quiring
English 1B
13 January 2016
Welfare Drug Testing
Concepcion Carrillo, a single parent raising four children, has just been struck with awful
news that she has been diagnosed with colon cancer. Although it is not at stage four the doctors
are forced to remove the cancer immediately. During her process of recovering, Concepcion had
lost her job as a personal banker at Wells Fargo and was forced to receive government assistance.
The government assistance that Concepcion was in desperate need for was food stamps as well
as housing assistance. For four years Ms. Carrillo was being financially supported by taxpayers,
however after those four years she was able to get her job back as a personal banker and
eventually get off of welfare. Although there are many individuals who are not on drugs while
collecting financial assistance, they are continuously and automatically characterized as drug
addicts. Many taxpayers believe these rumors and complain that their money should not be spent
on those individuals who choose to continue a life full of poverty due to drugs. They believe that
these individuals are not trying to improve their lifestyle so that they could eventually get off of
welfare. In order to prevent tax dollars from being wasted on individuals who continue to use
drugs, taxpayers have implemented laws in states such as West Virginia, Illinois, and Kansas
ensuring that the individuals on public assistance receive random drug tests. Although this may
seem like a brilliant idea, states who have enacted the law have found that only a fraction were
found using drugs. States who have already implemented this law are wasting tax dollars and
should no longer enforce this law. Instead of wasting money on drug testing, states who are
struggling with a high rate of individuals relying on government assistance should focus on
helping those people get a job so that they could get off of welfare.
Individuals seeking any form of welfare whether that be food stamps or social security
are automatically stereotyped. Most frequently people receiving public benefits are assumed to
be drug users. For instance, author Danica Johnson from Everyday Feminism Magazine
addresses the assumption of “people using welfare to financially support their drug habits” (1).
She states, “Federal government research tells us that the population of welfare receivers on
drugs is basically the same as that of the American population in general – in some cases, even
lower” (1). The number of individuals actively using drugs is equivalent to those receiving
