Aims to Limit Abuse of Prescription Drugs The state's long-debated prescription drug database opened for business Thursday, but it will be another six weeks before pharmacists and others who dispense controlled substances can access that information. More than 100 drugs that have the potential of being abused, such as OxyContin and Xanax, are subject to the new rules. Pharmacists will have seven days to load the information into the state's database, which will be used to target junkies and doctors who overprescribe - so-called "pill mills." The patient receiving the drug and the doctor writing the prescription will be entered into the database. [continues 640 words]
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Florida has long been the nation's center of the illegal sale of prescription drugs: Doctors here bought 89 percent of all the Oxycodone sold in the country last year. At its peak, so many out-of-staters flocked to Florida to buy drugs at more than 1,000 pain clinics that the state earned the nickname "Oxy Express." But with the help of tougher laws, officials have moved aggressively this year to shut down so-called pill mills and disrupt the pipeline that moves the drugs north. In the past year, more than 400 clinics were either shut down or closed their doors. [continues 1191 words]
TAMPA -- When drug dealers started disappearing from street corners this year, Tampa police detectives thought something was going on. And when officers made traffic stops, they began noticing something odd. They were finding "massive amounts" of preloaded debit cards along with ledgers and laptop computers, said Sgt. Terry Goff in an exclusive interview with The Tampa Tribune and News Channel 8. They soon uncovered what Goff said was an explosion of tax fraud that permeated the city's poorest neighborhoods and some of its most influential conclaves. Erstwhile street criminals were using laptops and mailboxes to steal hundreds of millions of dollars by filing fraudulent tax returns with stolen Social Security numbers. [continues 1549 words]
Here's a suggestion that would help stimulate this economy: Eliminate the ridiculous "war on drugs." Legalize the drugs, regulate them and tax the heck out of them. Here we'd have a new source of revenue and stimulate a new income crop! Then use the billions wasted eradicating marijuana and coca crops, and putting people in jail for having "roaches" in their car ashtrays, to restart the Civilian Conservation Corps. Put people to work repairing our crumbling infrastructure, such as bridges and roads. [continues 82 words]
Casino Fire Signals A New Stage In Criminal Violence That Mexico-U.S. Must Battle Together The appalling barbarity of a deliberately set casino fire that left 52 people dead in the northern city of Monterrey last week is all the more reason for Mexican President Felipe CalderA3n to intensify his country's courageous fight against drug criminals and for the United States to do everything it can to help its southern neighbor. Mexico is waging the fight of its life, with an uncertain outcome that carries huge stakes for the future of that country and the well-being of the United States, as well. [continues 496 words]
A serious crackdown on the illicit use of prescription drugs now under way in Florida should change the Sunshine State's disgraceful reputation as a pill-mill state. It's a new type of drug war that law enforcement officials believe will save lives. Federal and state officials announced results last week from a three-year investigation known as Operation Oxy Alley in which 32 people were arrested, mostly in South Florida. The charges ranged from intent to distribute controlled substances to racketeering conspiracy - -- the latter charge being a relatively new strategy in the fight against the abuse of prescription drugs. It will likely not be the last time federal and state officials pursue operators of pill mills as organized crime participants and racketeers. [continues 432 words]
If you're drinking the Kool-Aid in Tallahassee, the current effort to privatize Florida prisons involves an amazing moment of convergence: a tea party governor working with a conservative Legislature to lower incarceration while reducing costs and helping former prisoners. Corrections Secretary Ed Buss, speaking at a Florida TaxWatch event, spoke convincingly about "redefining corrections" and reducing the "corrections industrial complex." Meanwhile, the actual bid document, created amid secrecy and almost zero public or legislative input, sets performance standards at a disappointing level "comparable to existing Department of Corrections facilities" and fudges issues of recidivism and hidden costs. [continues 486 words]
Up To $60,000 Saved Yearly On Rejected Applicants May Be Nullified By Expenses TALLAHASSEE -Since the state began testing welfare applicants for drugs in July, about 2 percent have tested posiA-tive, preliminary data show. Ninety-six percent proved to be drug free, leaving the state on the hook to reimburse the cost of their tests. The initiative might save the state a few dollars anyway, bearing out one of Gov. Rick Scott's arguments for impleA-menting it. However, the low drug test fail-rate undercuts another of his arguA-ments: That people on welfare are more likely to use drugs. [continues 767 words]
BROOKSVILLE - County commissioners unanimously overturned a recent decision by its planning members and rejected plans by Operation Par to open a drug abuse clinic off Kass Circle in Spring Hill. Dozens of residents at Tuesday's commission meeting spoke against the clinic, saying it would increase the crime rate, make it unsafe for children and seniors and devalue property. Operation Par representatives said the clinic would be well-maintained and would not have any adverse effects to the community. Planning commissioners last month approved the zoning for the clinic, agreeing with their staff saying they could not find any reason to deny the request. [continues 458 words]
There is a natural tendency among politicians new to Tallahassee to assume that when they encounter resistance to change it is because of inertia rather than informed experience. The latest debacle involves the bold and quick decision by the Republican-led Legislature to privatize 30 state prison facilities in 18 South Florida counties. A minor detail not discussed at the time: up to $25 million in public money to provide severance pay to more than 4,000 Department of Corrections workers. [continues 324 words]
A new report released last week found Pinellas and Pasco counties leading the state in an alarming count - the number of people fatally overdosing on the most lethal prescription drugs. That leads to two possible conclusions, both dismaying. Either the Pinellas and Pasco communities are at the epicenter of Florida's prescription drug epidemic, or drug abuse deaths only seem highest in these counties because other regions are not reporting theirs so completely. And if the second is true, the statewide problem is even worse than experts think. [continues 880 words]
PANAMA CITY -Florida is the only state in America with drug trafficking laws that don't require prosecutors to prove a defendant actually knew they were trafficking drugs, but all that could change in the wake of a ruling by a federal judge in Orlando last month. Calling the Florida Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act "draconian," U.S. District Court Judge Mary Scriven found the law "is unconstitutional on its face" because it imposes severe penalties without requiring evidence the defendant knew they were trafficking drugs. [continues 399 words]
The Issue: Lawsuit Seeks to Stop Prison Privatization In preparing a massive change to shave $22 million from its prison budget, the state is overlooking other reforms that could save plenty more money. The state Department of Corrections is readying to complete the largest prison privatization project in the country. On Jan. 1, if all goes according to schedule, 29 state prisons in 18 Florida counties, including South Florida's, will be operated by private companies. The operative word is scheduled. The process could be halted by a lawsuit filed by the Florida Police Benevolent Association on behalf of unionized prison guards. [continues 300 words]
Any year would produce thousands of candidates for Most Overhyped Political Press Release. More than four months remain in 2011, but a clear favorite in Florida will be one that came out last Monday: "Governor Scott: Strike Force Winning Pill Mill War." The release accompanied a media event in Miami that featured the governor, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey and others dragooned into appearing. The intent was to give credit for Florida's fight against prescription-drug trafficking to those who came late, and in some cases reluctantly, to the fight. [continues 671 words]
Some Pleased; Others Squeezed TAMPA -They walked into the clean, red brick medical offices and demanded prescription painkillers. The doctor shoppers and drug addicts thought the Tampa Pain Relief Center on East Fletcher Avenue was just another storefront clinic that freely dispensed powerful painkillerswithout proper background checks. When they were turned down by the nurse at the front desk, they grew angry, refused to calm down and were removed from the lobby by police. 'Some patients were threatening,' said Douglas Constant, a pain management physiA-cian and anesthesiologist at the practice. 'We've had some people come in thinking they can get anything.' It's a common occurrence in a town known as a hotbed for so-called 'pill mills' and in asociety grappling with an epidemic of prescripA-tion drug addiction, law enforcement and health officials say. [continues 867 words]
Sometimes it seems as if when it comes to our schools, we forget that we're dealing with children. We forget that the ultimate point is to educate them as an integral part of equipping them to arrive at adulthood poised to succeed. So too often we focus on policies that punish them for making mistakes instead of creating conditions that help them succeed. That makes the report from PNJ education reporter Erin Kourkounis that drug expulsions in Escambia County schools are down by half this year such good news. She reported that school officials credit the district's new drug policy. [continues 227 words]
Florida banned the sale and possession of a class of designer drugs - - misleadingly marketed as "bath salts" - with little fanfare this year. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued an emergency order in January, temporarily banning MDPV, one of the chemicals found in some of the products. The Legislature subsequently passed a bill that permanently makes it illegal to distribute or possess bath salts laced with MDPV or one of five other man-made chemicals. Gov. Rick Scott signed the legislation in late May. [continues 564 words]
There was a quake last week, but you likely didn't feel it. See, this particular quake was not of the Earth, involved no shifting of the planetary crust. No, what shifted was a paradigm, and the implications are hopeful and profound. On Tuesday, you see, the NAACP passed a resolution calling for an end to the War on Drugs. Said NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous in a written statement, "These flawed drug policies that have been mostly enforced in African-American communities must be stopped and replaced with evidence-based practices that address the root causes of drug use and abuse in America." [continues 466 words]
A 23-year-old man pushing a toddler in a stroller threatened to shoot the pharmacist as he robbed a St. Petersburg CVS. Another man stabbed a Tarpon Springs pharmacy clerk in the neck, demanding pain pills. And in a recent Long Island case, a man shot and killed four pharmacy employees in a painkiller holdup. Long considered a safe and sterile environment, pharmacies have become increasingly frequent targets among the growing number of painkiller abusers. As Florida begins cracking down on pill mills, doctor shopping and prescription fraud, many fear pharmacy robberies will increase. [continues 366 words]
Rummaging through a garbage can may yield important clues about an individual - from reading habits to monthly bills to telltale signs of drug abuse. The unglamorous technique has long been part of the investigative arsenal for a reason: It gets results. It should come as no surprise, then, that the FBI has given the thumbs-up to trash digs to check the credibility of possible informers - - so long as agents go through only garbage that has been left on the curb. This determination is one of many in a new set of rules the bureau is scheduled to unveil soon to govern the activities of agents in the field. [continues 361 words]
Florida banned the sale and possession of a class of designer drugs - misleadingly marketed as "bath salts" - with little fanfare this year. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued an emergency order in January, temporarily banning MDPV, one of the chemicals found in some of the products. The Legislature subsequently passed a bill that permanently makes it illegal to distribute or possess bath salts laced with MDPV or one of five other man-made chemicals; Gov. Rick Scott signed the legislation in late May. [continues 566 words]
Once again, government servants have told Americans that marijuana ranks right up there with heroin. The Drug Enforcement Agency ruled July 8 that marijuana has "no accepted medical use" and will continue as a schedule 1 drug - the most forbidden category. The DEA is a law enforcement bureaucracy. The medical opinions of law enforcement bureaucrats should be of little interest. We do not ask cops to make laws; we pay cops to enforce the laws established by constitutions or enacted by the people or the decisions of their representatives. [continues 490 words]
In October 2009, medical marijuana advocates celebrated a U.S. Department of Justice memo declaring that federal authorities wouldn't target the legal use of medicinal pot in states where it is permitted. The memo from Deputy U.S. Attorney General David Ogden was credited with accelerating a California medical marijuana boom, including a proliferation of dispensaries that now handle more than $1 billion in pot transactions. But last month brought a new memo from another deputy attorney general, James Cole. And this time, it is stirring industry fears of federal raids on pot dispensaries and sweeping crackdowns on large-scale medical pot cultivation. [continues 822 words]
Voters in Miami Beach could make it the first city in Florida to decriminalize marijuana possession after campaigners announced Tuesday they had turned in more than double the number of voter signatures needed for their initiative to make the ballot. They needed 4,300 signatures and turned in more than 9,000. The initiative is sponsored by the Campaign for Sensible Marijuana Policies in Florida. Under the initiative, people caught in possession of up to 20 grams of pot would face no more than a $100 fine. Under Florida state law, possession of up to 20 grams is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. [continues 254 words]
Regarding 'New laws require pension contributions, ultrasounds' (Metro, June 30): The new law that took effect July 1 requiring all state welfare applicants get drug-tested before they can receive assistance is a shameful and foolish precedent. Drug tests are notoriously inaccurate. Administering them will require more government bureaucracy, and studies show welfare recipients are no more likely to use drugs than the average person. A federal court struck down a similar state law as unconstitutional, and lawmakers in Idaho recently determined that welfare drug-testing would cost their state more money than it would save. It is cruel to insist that the poor pay out of their own pocket for a drug test that cannot even tell the difference between the poppy seed bagel eaten for breakfast and street heroin. GRANT SMITH WASHINGTON , D.C The writer is federal policy coordinator, Office of National Affairs, Drug Policy Alliance. [end]
A controlled drug sting in Miami-Dade' Redlands went awry and police opened fire, killing four armed men who showed up to rob a home owned by the county that was all part of the ruse. Seven months after he was released from prison, Rosendo Betancourt helped Miami-Dade police infiltrate a gang of suspected home invasion robbers with a penchant for torture and mutilation. The plan was to convince the gang there was a stash of marijuana inside a rural Redlands home that turned out to be owned by Miami-Dade County and set up for such a ruse. [continues 818 words]
Hurray! Now that our good governor has signed into law a provision that will save us from the drug-ravaged poor who use public money to buy drugs, we must now go after the rest of those violent drug users. By all means start with our teachers. They must be tested lest they corrupt our naive youth. And we must protect ourselves against those uniformed police and firemen. Who knows what they do when under the influence of drugs? None of us will be safe in our beds. [continues 155 words]
It's an obvious point, but ex-felons need jobs when they get out of prison. To find jobs, some former prisoners will need to acquire professional licenses. If ex-felons don't find jobs, they are more likely to become repeat offenders, returning to Florida's prisons and costing the taxpayers more money. A number of Florida jobs -- even barbering -- require state licenses. But until recently, felons couldn't get those licenses. They carried a figurative ball and chain as they faced the challenge of re-entering society. [continues 330 words]
Re: William Dicker letter "Marijuana Monopoly" 23 June: Excellent letter. It suggests we do what the 21st Amendment did: Get the feds out of the prohibition business and let the individual states do as they choose. The rub is that marijuana prohibition has become a lucrative industry that alcohol prohibition never was. It enriches the careers, stock portfolios, egos and campaign contributions of pot fighters. It is so entrenched that the feds send money to fight drugs in 28 HIDTAs (High Intensity Drug Fighting Areas) comprising "..approximately 60 percent of the U.S. population," according to CNN this week. [continues 57 words]
Re: Call off the global drug war June 20, commentary The drug war started slowly about 100 years ago. A handful of prominent Americans wanted to restrict opium production so no colonial power could benefit from the opium trade, as England, France and Spain had done. Their motives were the best, but they didn't understand that restricting supply would enable a wealthy and violent illegal market. Even the failure of Prohibition didn't connect the dots for them. Emotion trumped reason. It was a=C2=80=C2=94 and is a=C2=80=C2=94 the fat al flaw of U.S. antidrug policy, with the destructive consequences described by Jimmy Carter in this column. [continues 189 words]
A lot of people seem upset about the new law requiring potential welfare recipients to pay for drug testing before they can be approved. What these complainers don't realize is that the poverty-stricken have had it too easy for far too long. The government is finally doing the right thing by assuming that every single one of them is guilty of using illicit drugs unless they are able to prove themselves innocent. The idea that we are all innocent until proven guilty is antiquated and needs to be done away with anyway. Luckily, we are now seeing a reversal of that unfortunate belief, and this new drug testing law is merely the most recent example. Arizona's tough new immigration law assumes all people of possibly foreign origin are in this country illegally unless they can prove otherwise at any time. [continues 80 words]
TAMPA - Attorneys for Buju Banton did all they could to remind jurors and a judge that their client was an international reggae star, not a drug kingpin. They displayed his album covers during Banton's drug conspiracy trial in February. They called Bob Marley's son as a witness and told jurors Banton had won a Grammy. And on the first page of a recent court filing, attorneys even included a photo of Banton performing on stage. But it was convicted drug defendant Mark Myrie - Banton's given name - - that a federal judge sentenced to 10 years and one month in prison Thursday after his conviction for setting up a deal to buy 11 pounds of cocaine with the intent to distribute it. [continues 675 words]
Former President Jimmy Carter, thought by many to be the worst president in U.S. history, wants to decriminalize nonviolent drug offenses. I do not know if there are statistics, but I wonder how many people came by their drug money by working regularly scheduled jobs that had paychecks and tax deductions, as opposed to those who relied on "nonviolent" burglaries and car thefts, etc. Certainly the lives of the drug offenders are affected, but so are the lives of the victims of crime. I would like to see Carter stick to something he knows, like growing peanuts and framing houses. We can use both. Don Niemann Seminole [end]
Re Leonard Pitts' June 15 column, Time to end drug war: The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy immediately rejected the high profile Global Commission on Drug Policy call for reform and defended the federal government's drug control efforts. These efforts have given the land of the free the highest incarceration rate in the world. Prohibition-related violence has caused upwards of 35,000 deaths in Mexico during the past four years. Despite criminal penalties, the United States has higher rates of drug use than European Union countries such as Portugal that have decriminalized. With the national debt soaring, we can no longer afford to throw good money after bad drug policy. Robert Sharpe Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C. [end]
In response to the recent story titled "Panel: War on drugs has failed; legalize marijuana": What would be the effect of state owned and operated stores that sell legal, locally grown marijuana? Some states and towns have a monopoly on liquor sales in their area. The federal government bought and sold tobacco and controlled the volume with acreage allotments. The "numbers racket" had many of the same elements as the marijuana business until the states took over, lowered the odds of winning and changed the name to lottery, in effect putting the bolita people out of business. Again, what would be the effect if the state took over this business? William Dicker Gainesville [end]
On June 1, the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board criticized Gov. Rick Scott for signing a bill that will require Floridians applying for welfare to submit to a drug test. At issue is not the ability of needy citizens to apply for assistance. Nobody disagrees with the state providing a safety net for those who fall temporarily on hard times or who cannot provide for themselves due to physical or mental impairments. But it should be a safety net, not a comfort zone. [continues 370 words]
Every kid who's ever played cops and robbers knows that the good guys try to keep guns away from the bad guys. The last thing you'd do is sit around and watch crooks sell each other weapons, let them walk off with hundreds of AK-47s, sniper rifles and revolvers, then sit back and wait for the carnage. But that's exactly what leadership within the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are charged with doing, in an apparently harebrained ploy to get close to Mexico's drug cartels. [continues 671 words]
The Issue: Gov. Scott Suspends Employee Drug Tests Give Gov. Rick Scott credit for suspending his order to require random drug tests of all state employees. Scott would now be well-advised to do the same for the meritless order requiring anyone seeking state welfare assistance to submit to and pay for a drug test. Why Gov. Scott suspended the drug tests for state employees "" whether it was concern over a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, or whether he just realized the foolishness of the crusade "" is open for debate. [continues 278 words]
IN an extraordinary new initiative announced earlier this month, the Global Commission on Drug Policy has made some courageous and profoundly important recommendations in a report on how to bring more effective control over the illicit drug trade. The commission includes the former presidents or prime ministers of five countries, a former secretary general of the United Nations, human rights leaders, and business and government leaders, including Richard Branson, George P. Shultz and Paul A. Volcker. The report describes the total failure of the present global antidrug effort, and in particular America's "war on drugs," which was declared 40 years ago today. It notes that the global consumption of opiates has increased 34.5 percent, cocaine 27 percent and cannabis 8.5 percent from 1998 to 2008. Its primary recommendations are to substitute treatment for imprisonment for people who use drugs but do no harm to others, and to concentrate more coordinated international effort on combating violent criminal organizations rather than nonviolent, low-level offenders. [continues 660 words]
I read in the News Journal the negative reaction of many when Gov. Rick Scott announced all welfare recipients would be drug tested. Why not? If they are drug free, there is nothing to be disturbed about. If so, then the taxpayer should not be responsible for supporting their habit. I also feel strongly about unwed mothers who have three and four children and are on welfare. Florida should do as a few other states do. The first child is an accident and they are eligible for welfare. The second, third or even fourth should be supported by the father/fathers. The proud daddy or daddies should be responsible for support of these children. There are ways to prevent unplanned pregnancies, and the education for use is readily available in many organizations. Try the health department. There is an old expression, which seems appropriate: "If you want to dance, pay the fiddler." Give the daddies the bragging right and have them support their child. Marie D. Wallo Pensacola [end]
Forty years ago today, President Richard Nixon declared our nation's War on Drugs. That is more than enough time to evaluate the war's costs and benefits: In dealing with the problems of drug abuse, it has failed. It is time for a new approach. The most recent assessment of this war came this month from the Global Commission on Drug Policy, a group of 19 political, business and cultural leaders including Reagan-era Secretary of State George Schultz and former Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker. Calling for an end to the war-fighting model, they wrote: [continues 513 words]
As an op-ed article on the opposite page notes, this is the 40th anniversary of America's "War on Drugs." This year, Florida began a strategic retreat from decades of failed drug-related criminal justice policies, and that retreat should continue even faster next year. In the late 1980s, Florida overreacted to the arrival of crack cocaine by instituting mandatory sentences that did little to distinguish addicts from traffickers. Prisons swelled, and the Department of Corrections began releasing inmates so the state would remain in compliance with court-ordered limits on prison populations. The system for deciding who to release, however, was spotty. One man who had served barely half his sentence killed two police officers. So next came the rule that all inmates must serve 85 percent of their sentence. [continues 353 words]
Re Guillermo I. Martinez's June 9 column, "Monterrey must be the line in the sand in Mexico drug war": Drugs did not spawn Mexico's organized crime networks. Just like alcohol prohibition gave rise to Al Capone, drug prohibition created the violent drug-trafficking organizations behind all the killings in Mexico. With alcohol prohibition repealed in the United States, liquor bootleggers no longer gunned each other down in drive-by shootings. Mexico's upsurge in violence only began after an anti-drug crackdown created a power vacuum among competing cartels. [continues 97 words]
I do not object to drug testing TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] applicants on a privacy-based theory. I only disapprove of the this measure as a wasted effort to keep taxpayers' money out of the hands of drug addicts. With the prevalence of substance abuse among all demographics, from the senator's son to the farmer's daughter, it is conceivable that we support someone's habit with every dollar we pay for goods and services ranging from Los Cubanitos sandwich platters to handmade Amish fireplaces. If Gov. Rick Scott's measure does, in fact, contribute to anyone's recovery from addiction, I would praise his ability to accomplish a goal that has evaded most social welfare professionals. Lakeland [end]
Defenders of the war on drugs say it's a matter of simple morality that the United States continue a full range of anti-drug efforts; it's an expression of opposition to drug use. Drug war defenders fear that use of now-illicit drugs would skyrocket were these drugs declared legal. But a growing number of people are questioning this view as they assess the more than 30,000 drug war-related deaths in Mexico since 2006, an erosion of liberties as government drug enforcement powers increase, and an approach that too often favors incarceration over treatment. [continues 416 words]
Dear President Obama: Right after your election, somebody asked if I thought having a black president meant black people's concerns would now receive attention at the executive level. I told them I expected the opposite. There used to be a saying - only Nixon could go to China. Meaning, of course, that only he, as a staunch anti-communist, had the credibility to make overtures to that nation without accusations of being soft on communism. By the inverse of that political calculus, I never expected that you, as a black man, would do much to address black issues. [continues 480 words]
I don't agree with our governor 99 percent of the time. However, his bill to have people drug tested before receiving welfare benefits is long overdue. As a taxpayer for more than 50 years, I would have and didn't have any problem submitting to a drug test for employment purposes. Why should the taxpayers be responsible for buying people drugs? The American Civil Liberties Union and some legislators say this is unconstitutional. Is it unconstitutional for employers to require a drug test before hiring someone? What is the difference? If you don't want drug addicts tested, give them your own money! If there is a judge out there who thinks drug testing is unconstitutional, he or she must have a good reason, like not wanting to be tested. Think about it. This is one good thing Scott has done. Don't ruin it! Michael Ryder, North Lauderdale [end]
Some stories make it to the front pages of our newspapers and we cannot ignore their importance. Take for instance the victory by leftist Ollanta Humala in Peru's presidential election Sunday. That is unquestionably a new challenge for U.S. foreign policy in the region. Then we have those stories that seldom make it to the front pages but are brought up often enough that we know that the United States has a problem. The violence in Mexico is a perfect example. With 40,000 dead since December 2006, the United States is conscious of a looming problem on its border. [continues 352 words]
Without doubt, it is the popular thing to do. Save the taxpayer money. Keep someone who is using illegal drugs off the public dole. Prevent the government from subsidizing the drug habits of people on welfare. To that end, Gov. Rick Scott has signed legislation that will require all those applying for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, to undergo drug testing, and to pay upfront for the test. If the applicant passes, he or she will be reimbursed for the cost of the test and, assuming all paperwork is in order, begin to receive benefits. A failure -- that is, evidence of illegal drug use -- will preclude the applicant both from a reimbursement for the test cost and from receiving benefits. [continues 691 words]
I think drug testing is great for those who get government help. I have to be drug tested to get a job so I can help support those on welfare, so why shouldn't they? The also need to find out who smokes and who doesn't. That costs money and now some places won't even hire you if you smoke. If you are up front and honest, those who object shouldn't have a problem. Working people don't want to pay for food stamps, welfare or Medicaid fraud. I think living off of food stamps for years is wrong. If every working person quit work, how would food stamps and welfare go? Barbara Owens Pensacola [end]
Inside Florida
