Thread: Is this true?

Received this in an e-mail.....anyone know if this is true?????? I have not read about this......



Great going, Florida. You set the stage for the other 49 States to join! Kudos to Republican Governor Rick Scott for having the correctness and guts to move forward on this critical issue !

Hooray for Florida ! !

I-95 will be jammed for the next month or so........Druggies and deadbeats heading North out of Florida ..


Florida is the first state requiring drug testing to receive welfare!
Hooray for Florida !!!!


In signing the new law, Republican Gov. Rick Scott said, "If Floridians want welfare, they better make sure they are drug-free.


Applicants who test positive for illicit substances won't be eligible for the funds for a year, or until they undergo treatment.


Those who fail a second time would be banned from receiving funds for three years!


Naturally, a few people are crying this is unconstitutional


How is this unconstitutional ?


It's completely legal that every other working people have to pass drug tests in order to get a J-O-B which supports those on welfare!
Forward if you agree!!


Let's get Welfare back to the ones who NEED it, not those who WON'T get a JOB......


I AGREE!!!! 100 %

Chain e-mail claims Florida is the first state to require drug testing for welfare

Hooray for Florida !!!!"

A recent chain e-mail cheers on the Gov. Rick Scott policy that may need it least — drug-testing needy Floridians who apply for cash aid.

The new law, signed by the governor May 31, 2011, got a thumbs-up from 71 percent of Floridians in a September 2011 poll, including 90 percent of Republicans.

The viral e-mail message lays it on thick, beginning:

"Great going, Florida. You set the stage for the other 49 States to join! Kudos to Republican Governor Rick Scott for having the correctness and guts to move forward on this critical issue !

"Hooray for Florida ! !

"I-95 will be jammed for the next month or so........Druggies and deadbeats heading North out of Florida ..

"Florida is the first state requiring drug testing to receive welfare!"

Our eyes lit upon the message's first factual claim: "Florida is the first state requiring drug testing to receive welfare!"

Is this true?

We asked some experts, but not before doing a quick Web search to see if we might find some of the message's genesis. At least three sentences of the chain e-mail, it turns out, appear to be lifted directly from a June New York Daily News article. But that article doesn't address the claim we're checking, that Florida "is the first state requiring drug testing to receive welfare."

For that, we turned to the Florida Senate's final analysis, the National Conference of State Legislatures and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Florida's law deals with part of what used to be known as welfare: It's a cash assistance program funded by federal block grants called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Back in 1996, as part of federal welfare reform, the government told states they could use drug testing as part of eligibility for the block grant programs. (On the other hand, they weren't allowed to add new hurdles for collecting food.) Florida's law requires applicants for cash aid to pay for their own drug tests. If they pass, the cost of the testing is added to their benefits. If they fail, they're disqualified from cash aid for a year, though with drug abuse treatment they can reapply in six months. The caseload is now down 11 percent from September 2010.

Was Florida the first to try such testing, more than a decade after welfare reform?

The answer is no. Michigan instituted mandatory drug tests for all welfare applicants — in 1999.


But that kind of "suspicionless" testing, without any reason to believe people were using drugs in the first place, was struck down in 2003 by a Michigan appeals court. That discouraged other states. So while many have considered more drug-testing since the '90s, very few have passed laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a bipartisan group that represents state lawmakers. A 2002 survey, for example, showed that a handful of states — such as Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey and Wisconsin — tested only people who have been convicted of a drug felony.

Still, the proposals, sometimes pitched as a cost-saving measure, are popular. In 2009, more than 20 states proposed requiring drug tests as a condition of eligibility for public assistance, according to NCSL. In 2010, at least 12 did. No laws emerged. But this year, with at least 36 states considering drug-testing proposals, three are now law. In addition to Florida's mandatory suspicionless testing, Arizona and Missouri now screen applicants they have reasonable cause to believe are taking illegal drugs, though Arizona's requirement is temporary.

Meanwhile, Florida's law — the first requiring testing regardless of suspicion since Michigan's program was struck down — is under legal challenge. The ACLU has sued Florida to stop what it considers "unreasonable and suspicionless searches" that violate the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Our ruling

In 1996, Congress said states could test welfare recipients for illegal drug use. In 1999, Michigan was the first state to require all applicants to take drug tests, regardless of suspicion. But that law was struck down as unconstitutional, discouraging other states from requiring similar testing. This year, Florida became the first state to try mandatory drug screening of all applicants after Michigan's legal loss, while Arizona and Missouri enacted laws to test applicants they suspect might use drugs. A chain e-mail claims, "Florida is the first state requiring drug testing to receive welfare!" It is the first one — since the last one, which was Michigan. Meanwhile, other states also require drug-testing for some applicants. We rule this e-mail's claim False.



But that kind of "suspicionless" testing, without any reason to believe people were using drugs in the first place, was struck down in 2003 by a Michigan appeals court. That discouraged other states. So while many have considered more drug-testing since the '90s, very few have passed laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a bipartisan group that represents state lawmakers. A 2002 survey, for example, showed that a handful of states — such as Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey and Wisconsin — tested only people who have been convicted of a drug felony.

Still, the proposals, sometimes pitched as a cost-saving measure, are popular. In 2009, more than 20 states proposed requiring drug tests as a condition of eligibility for public assistance, according to NCSL. In 2010, at least 12 did. No laws emerged. But this year, with at least 36 states considering drug-testing proposals, three are now law. In addition to Florida's mandatory suspicionless testing, Arizona and Missouri now screen applicants they have reasonable cause to believe are taking illegal drugs, though Arizona's requirement is temporary.

Meanwhile, Florida's law — the first requiring testing regardless of suspicion since Michigan's program was struck down — is under legal challenge. The ACLU has sued Florida to stop what it considers "unreasonable and suspicionless searches" that violate the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Our ruling

In 1996, Congress said states could test welfare recipients for illegal drug use. In 1999, Michigan was the first state to require all applicants to take drug tests, regardless of suspicion. But that law was struck down as unconstitutional, discouraging other states from requiring similar testing. This year, Florida became the first state to try mandatory drug screening of all applicants after Michigan's legal loss, while Arizona and Missouri enacted laws to test applicants they suspect might use drugs. A chain e-mail claims, "Florida is the first state requiring drug testing to receive welfare!" It is the first one — since the last one, which was Michigan. Meanwhile, other states also require drug-testing for some applicants

We rule this e-mail's claim False.

http://www.politifact.com/florida/state ... require-d/

Fla. welfare applicants less likely to use drugs

By BILL KACZOR, Associated Press – Sep 27, 2011

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.

The Justice Department estimates that 6 percent of Americans 12 and older use illegal drugs.

The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the law, saying it violates welfare applicants' constitutional right against unreasonable searches. For that reason, a federal appellate court struck down a similar Michigan law in 2003.

The state hasn't said how much it believes it has saved by requiring the drug tests, but some of the law's most ardent backers say they're willing to take Hiaasen up on his offer.

"Tell him to write the check," said Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Bennett. "I'll be the first one to take it."

The Bradenton Republican said he'd even sponsor a bill that would require legislators to get urine tests — and require Hiassen to pay for them.

"Half the citizens of the state of Florida probably think half of the Legislature is on drugs, anyhow," Bennett cracked. "Nobody knows which half. That's the problem."

Rep. Jimmie Smith, an Inverness Republican who sponsored the measure, is also happy to accept. He's a retired staff sergeant who ran an Army testing program as his unit's drug coordinator.

Some legislative opponents of the law leaned against Hiaasen's idea, including Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich of Weston. She had suggested — tongue-in-cheek — that lawmakers themselves agree to drug tests when the legislation was debated.

"I personally would be willing to be drug-tested, but again I don't think you should be testing anybody unless there is a reasonable suspicion that they are taking drugs," Rich said in an interview.

"It's not a good return on investment ..., a waste of Carl Hiaasen's money," said Sen. Eleanor Sobel, a Hollywood Democrat who voted against the legislation. "He should use the money to help the homeless."

Hiaasen, though, said he thought the tests would be well worth the cost: $10 to $25 each.

"It would have an incredibly high entertainment value for me, and I'd probably get another column out of it," he said.

He said he'd also pay for a drug test for Scott.

The Republican governor not only urged lawmakers to pass the drug testing requirement, but ordered agencies under his control to test all new hires and do random testing of existing employees. He put the policy on hold, except for the Department of Corrections, due to a separate court challenge.

Scott spokesman Lane Wright noted that the governor's office had a random drug testing policy for its employees before Scott was elected. He said the governor himself has not been tested since taking office in January but is "willing to be drug tested now."

Hiaasen qualified his offer by saying he'd pay for the legislative drug tests only if all lawmakers took them together at the start of the legislative session in January.

"That way when the crazy stuff starts to happen a month or two later people won't just automatically assume that they're all stoned," he said. "The reality will set in that these people ... actually don't have any drugs in their system and they're still acting this way."

Associated Press writer Tony Winton in Vero Beach contributed to this report.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... 9a7fe8af1b

Originally Posted by working4change

We rule this e-mail's claim False.

http://www.politifact.com/florida/state ... require-d/

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I have a brother who is a retired Marine Colonel and politifact is the only political internet page he accepts as fact.