Arizona Drug Tested Welfare Recipients — Here Are the Shocking Results
Checking in again in March, the Arizona Sonora News Service cited state Department of Economic Security figures which found that over the course of more than five years, “42 people have been asked to take a follow-up drug test and 19 actually took the test, 16 of whom passed. The other 23 were stripped of their benefits for failing to take the drug test.”
That adds up to a grand total of three failed tests from 2009-2014. The net savings reaped from withholding benefits for those who either tested positive or failed to complete a drug test was around $3,500, once the $500 cost of testing the 19 is factored in, according to one state agency report. The haul is especially unimpressive when you consider the $1.7 million in savings state officials promised when they unveiled the program.
Lesson learned? Not quite.
Since Arizona enacted its drug testing programs, at least six more states have implemented similar measures. In 2012, Utah began its own, which, according to the Daily Beast, nabbed 12 of 466 people tested at a cost to the state of $25,000.
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