In early summer of 2011, Florida state officials announced a new law requiring welfare recipients to be drug tested. This announcement was met with protests and threats of lawsuits from Florida residents who felt that this law in some way violated their constitutional rights.
So this response begs the question: Is it right to require these drug tests?
The answer is a simple one. Yes.
In New York State, when a person applies for a job there is a portion at the bottom of their application that they sign stating that they will submit to random drug screenings. Failure to do so or failure to pass could lead to termination of employment. This is true for many companies across all 50 states. This means that in order to be allowed to work for a wage, most people have to agree to be drug tested. Why then should people who are getting money without working have the privilege of not being screened?
I have had several jobs and I was required to submit to drug testing for all of them. It’s a practice that allows employers to be sure that they employ people who can work to the best of their ability. Not to mention that drug use is against the law, a fact that has become less and less remembered in recent times.
Social drug use has become so common that according to the 2007 study released by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, 36.6 percent of college students admitted to using illicit drugs in the previous year (2005). And the rates are only increasing.
This led me to a question that has troubled me from the beginning of my college career. How many students who receive government grants to pay for college are also using illegal drugs? According to the “Federal Student Aid Strategic Plan FY 2011-15,” 12.8 million students received government assistance in 2005 and the number continues to increase. With so many students receiving aid, it is likely that some percentage of these students are also using illicit drugs.
As of now the safeguards for these programs focus solely on institutions being randomly evaluated to make sure that the need matches the amount of money they receive. But is this really enough? Who is this money really going to and is it really a viable government investment?
This may sound harsh, but as a student paying for college on my own it is a question that I grapple with daily, especially when I see students who, instead of focusing on school work, focus on partying. How many of them are having their education paid for by the government just to slack off?
So what is the solution? Well, there may not be one, but one possible way to better allocate these funds would be to take a page from Florida’s book and start drug testing students who receive government grants. I do not claim that this solution would be popular — in fact, it would probably be met with protest — but perhaps this would help solve more than one problem.
College campuses are always struggling with the use of drugs and alcohol within the institution. Maybe if students were held financially accountable for illegal behavior there would be less of it. As a student who has been drug tested in order to hold a job that in turn pays for my education, it is unacceptable to me that students who do not pay for school themselves do not have to submit to the same scrutiny.
In a country that prides itself on equality, I believe that in this situation there should be equality as well. Everyone receiving government assistance should be subject to the same rules and laws as people who are working for their money. Harsh? Not for people who are not doing anything illegal.