The New York Times is reporting that just as more Americans turn to government programs for economic assistance, an increasing number of applicants are being asked to submit to drug testing.

Lawmakers in three dozen states this year have proposed drug testing for people receiving benefits like welfare, unemployment assistance, job training, food stamps and public housing, the Times says.

Proponents of these measures say that they help keep tax dollars from being misused, while critics say that they reinforce stereotypes about the poor. Such laws have passed in states including Arizona, Florida, Indiana and Missouri, the Times reports.

In Florida, people receiving cash assistance through welfare have had to pay for their own drug tests since July, and enrollment has shrunk to its lowest levels since the start of the recession.

Since July, 7,030 passed, 32 failed and 1,597 did not provide results, according to the state. The state said it does not track what drugs caused failures, but elsewhere the vast majority of cases involved marijuana.

Opponents argue that the statistics suggest the number of drug users among people who receive public benefits is lower than the general population, and proponents say that it suggests that drug users are being deterred from taking the test ...

The law, the most far-reaching in the nation, provoked a lawsuit last month from the American Civil Liberties Union, arguing that the requirement represents an unreasonable search and seizure.

The flood of proposals across the country, enabled by the strength of Republicans in many statehouses and driven by a desire to cut government spending, recall the politics of the '80s and '90s, when higher rates of drug abuse and references to "welfare queens" led to policies aimed at ensuring that public benefits were not spent to support addiction.

... To date, most of the proposals have failed to win support because of concerns about legality, stemming from a decade-old federal court ruling. That ruling struck down a Michigan law that mandated testing for all welfare recipients as a violation of the constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

Source: the New York Times.

The assault on the poor needs to stop. Drug-testing applicants for government assistance is an onerous burden on a population that is already suffering under an unforgiving economy. These legislators need to read federal case law and stop wasting everyone's time.

In other news: VIDEO: Juan Williams: West and Smiley Threatened by Cain.

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