Drug Tests for State Legislators

Yesterday, State Senator Jeremy Hutchinson filed SB38 which requires all applicants for unemployment benefits to submit to random drug tests.

Are the unemployed more apt to be on drugs that other citizens?  The best way to know is to look at a similar program in Florida.

A program drug testing Florida welfare recipients began in 2010. Florida tested 4,086 welfare recipients and found only 108 people who tested positive for drugs, a whopping 2.6% of those tested.

The Florida law has temporarily by the courts because the law may violate the violate the Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens against “unreasonable searches” by the government.

Florida's drug testing program has been an abysmal failure and has racked up needless costs in drug tests and lawsuits.

Companies may require you to submit to a drug test before or during employment, but that is completely different than an all-powerful government. Florida's law, and the bill that Hutchinson filed, reeks of unreasonable searches by big government.

However, if the Arkansas General Assembly is determined to pass a drug testing bill, they should amend the bill to include themselves and submit to random drug tests.

Arkansas citizens have the right to know if the leaders who pass our laws and take our paychecks are on drugs.

Furthermore, which group of people is more likely to have easy access to drugs: the unemployed with limited to no income or state legislators who during regular sessions attend multiple receptions every night where the booze flows freely and then are taken to dinner by various lobbyists?

If legislators truly believe in drug testing those who receive government benefits, then they should do the honorable thing and submit to random drug tests. Some state legislators do not have real jobs and their only income is from being an elected official, so these employees of the state should definitely submit to random drug tests.

If a state legislator tests positive for drugs, he/she should have their legislative pay reduced.

Finally, it should be noted that Hutchinson, the State Senator who is attempting to legislate morality with this drug testing bill, has had moral failings of his own lately.

He recently settled an ethics complaint that revealed he funneled campaign money to an ex-girlfriend/ex-mistress with whom he's also had a run-in with the law.