Drug Testing of Welfare Recipients: Persuasive Essay

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Drug Testing of Welfare Recipients: Persuasive Essay
Welfare is presently more accepted by the mainstream society in the United States. To some, welfare has ended up being more of a lasting commitment. This is primarily because unlike how it used to be earlier, more individuals are today depending on handouts from the government for survival. The labor force is gradually getting smaller as people stop searching for employment and see support from the government as the only way to survive (Gupta 14). Welfare programs are essential as social safety nets designed to be reciprocal and impermanent.
Side 1: Someone receiving welfare should be drug tested
Those who argue that people who on welfare have to be drug tested maintain that it is essential in order to protect children. Moreover, they argue that it is necessary so as to make sure that tax money was not being used by the recipients to purchase drugs. Any illicit drug usage within a family is detrimental as well as abusive to children. As such, it is imperative to have a policy which is zero-tolerant for illicit drug usage in families, particularly those families that are struggling financially and require welfare support in order to provide for their children (MacDonald 12).
Taxpayers in the United States have to give support to the poor. In turn, supporters of mandatory drug testing claim those who receive welfare have to engage in behavior that is both constructive and responsible as a stipulation for getting assistance. This simply connotes that welfare is a social contract between the taxpayers who provide them and the recipients. If those who provide them are required to give a fraction of their income to the poor, then it would be sane to expect the welfare recipients to be held to certain standards so as to make sure that the temporary nature of the support result in their quick entry back into the labor force. Mandatory drug testing would make sure that this level of responsible behavior is maintained by the recipients (Amundson, Zajicek & Hunt 28).
Supporters of this perspective also argue that it is fair to have mandatory drug testing for those who receive welfare assistance. According to them, employed people are required to undergo drug testing so as to abide by the employee standards of the organization they are working for. A lot of organizations require mandatory drug testing as a stipulation of hiring. A lot of colleges and universities mandate physicals – and this includes drug testing – before the students begin their studies at the college (Gupta 14). Moreover, even professional sports and the military perform drug testing. All through our lives, most people are needed to undergo drug testing at some point for a number of reasons to make sure that they are conforming to the law. Hence, recipients of welfare have to be held to the same standard as other people as regards to this issue (Vitter 14).
Another reason is that mandatory drug testing should be performed in order to allow those in need to get effective medical care. Supporters assert that mandatory drug tests for those people who require welfare assistance should undergo drug tests. This is essential since it might allow for those individuals in need to get proper medical care so as to assist them with whichever medical conditions they have and enable them enter back into the labor force as soon as possible after they recover. In essence, mandatory drug tests would serve to hold those who receive the assistance at similar standard as other...