Surprise in Number of Welfare Recipients Snared in Suspicion-Based Drug Testing

A pilot program designed to suspected kick drug users off welfare didn’t agree to a drug test didn’t net a single offender, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said in a report to lawmakers.

The pilot program was in effect in three counties — Allegan, Clinton and Marquette — from October 2015 to Sept. 30, 2016. During the period, 14 of the 443 Family Independence Program applicants were asked to agree to the screenings. Only one of them “was found by a clinician to have a reasonable suspicion of use of a controlled substance and required a substance use (drug) test,” according to the department.

But before the test could be done, the individual stopped receiving public assistance “for an unrelated reason,” the report said.

The Michigan Legislature approved the suspicion-based drug testing pilot program in 2014 and appropriated $300,000 to pay for it. Republicans who backed the proposal said they want to help the state’s poor, but not if they’re using drugs. Democrats who opposed suspicion-based testing said the program would unfairly target innocent children.

MDHHS spokesman Bob Wheaton told The Detroit News most of the funding will be returned to the state.

“Our main goal was to help people who were receiving cash assistance to continue on a path toward self-sufficiency and reduce any barriers to employment, such as substance use issues,” he said.

The pilot program was limited in its scope to avoid the same kind of legal challenges that were made to a 1999 state law allowing for random drug testing of welfare recipients. That law was declared constitutional by a federal court in 2000 after the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan sued the state.

The pilot program was an “utter failure,” Rana Elmir of the Michigan ACLU told the newspaper, adding that welfare drug testing efforts are “a flagrant waste of resources that reinforce stereotypes about poor people.”
In the pilot program, 27 people were flagged for screening, but 10 were already participating in drug treatment programs. Among the others, cases were closed for three others for unrelated reasons or because they discontinued contact with the Community Mental Health System.

For more on this, go to The Detroit News.

Photo by Chuck Grimmett via Flickr Commons