Federal Court Repeals Welfare Drug-Test Program, Research Paper Example

Academic studies

• Personal interest: Modern technology and student literacy
• Academic subject: Cultural studies
• Possible topics: “Has text messaging caused lower literacy rates?”; “How has the internet and Web 2.0 impacted the classroom?”; “How electronic readers have contributed to the classroom environment”

Social issue

Personal interest: American welfare system

Social issue: Welfare recipients should be drug-tested to prevent delinquent behavior while assuring taxpayers that their money is going to help poor people in need

Possible subjects: “Welfare recipients should be forced to undergo drug testing”; “Is it just to force welfare recipients to get drug tested?”; “Drug testing welfare recipients should be a constitutional stipulation.”; “The myth of drug use by welfare recipients”

Scientific subject

Personal interest: How anthropogenic activities create pollution, which causes massive environmental degradation

Scientific subject: Regulating activities that degrade the environment through enforced legislation

Possible topics: “The efficacy of conservation efforts in the United States”; “Anthropogenic activities unchecked exacerbating global warming”; “Government and policy in the environmental movement”

Cultural background

Personal interest: The forced relocation and internment of the Japanese and Japanese-Americans in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor

Cultural background: Japanese-American

Possible topics: “How women benefitted from forced incarceration during World War II”; “The construction of foreignness and Japanese internment”; “The liminal identity of Japanese and Japanese Americans”

Controlling Idea

State governments should mandate all welfare recipients to undergo drug testing to ensure that welfare programs remain self-sufficient while also certifying that taxpayers’ funds are not being funneled to welfare recipients for them to purchase and consume illicit substances. A plethora of courts at the state level have embraced this unconventional, punitive legal practice because they do not want any American citizen to become habitually dependent on the government for subsistence for a protracted period of time. As such, mandatory drug-testing of welfare recipients would enhance the general health and well-being of those on welfare by weaning substance abusers off illegal drugs and encouraging them to become productive members of American society. In addition, such programs would show taxpayers that government dollars are being used to fund rehabilitation programs rather than perpetuating and sustaining self-destructive behaviors so prevalent in the welfare population today.

Short proposal

The welfare system in the United States persists as a politically discordant and controversial issue that policy makers, scholars, and citizens continue to debate in various public discourses. To cope with the pitfalls of systemic poverty and lack of employment, welfare recipients often turn to substance abuse for transient relief, which adversely impacts their capacity to socialize,  their health and well-being, and their ability to perform well in the workplace (Pollack et al., 2002, p. 256).  Republicans in Congress continue to draft bills that give states the power to mandate and administer drug tests for welfare recipients. Individuals who test positive for any illicit substance would be forced to enter a drug rehabilitation program and abstain from the consumption of illicit substance or risk losing their welfare benefits (Vitter, 2011). A handful of state governments have already passed injunctions for required drug screenings of welfare recipients in response to reports of escalating substance abuse within the welfare. Maryland, New Jersey, Nevada,  Florida, Indiana, and Oregon have all probed various kinds of policies that broach this topic, although the constitutionality of state-mandated drug testing policies has been questioned in all cases (“Should Welfare Recipients be Tested For Drugs?”, 2011). In 1999, Michigan became the first state to devise a seminal program that required all welfare recipients residing in Michigan to take a chemical blood test (Douglas et al., 2003, p. 7). Critics have decried such policies and programs because, they argue, mandatory drug testing not only undermines the fundamental rights of all Americans enshrined within the U.S. Constitution by violating the Fourth Amendment but also yields high costs with very little evidence that such a stipulation would mitigate or deter substance abuse (Wurman, 2013, p. 1153). Such a draconian approach to address systemic poverty and unemployment discourages the poor from seeking assistance and unemployment benefits they need to survive during a financially unstable epoch.

References

Douglas, C. A., McCauley, M., Ostrow, M., & Wimbrow, M. (2003). United States: federal court repeals welfare drug-test program. Off Our Backs, 33(5/6), 7-8.

Pollack, H. A., Danziger, S., Seefeldt, K. S., & Jayakody, R. (2002). Substance use among welfare recipients: trends and policy responses. Social Service Review, 76(2), 256-274.

“Should welfare recipients be drug tested?. (n.d.). US News. Retrieved August 18, 2015 from http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-welfare-recipients-be-tested-for-drugs

Vitter, D. (2011). Should welfare recipients be drug tested?” U.S. News Digital Weekly. Retrieved August 24, 2015 from Academic Search Complete.

Wurman, I. (2013). Drug testing welfare recipients as a constitutional condition. Stanford Law Review, 65, 1153-1193.