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Test More or Test Less

January 15th, 2014 by flanews

Governor Rick Scott is asking the US Supreme Court to review two lower court rulings that prohibit Florida from drug testing welfare recipients. As Matt Horn reports, people are split on across-the-board testing.


Terry Paul worked for the State of Florida for 17 years before losing her job last May. Paul supports across-the-board drug testing for state workers and welfare recipients.

“Everybody needs to be checked, I’m willing to be checked, if I want benefits, I want help, I’ll do whatever they want me to do to get the help,” said Terry Paul.

Governor Rick Scott has continued to push mandatory drug testing. Now he is asking the US Supreme Court to weigh in.

The request comes after the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against across-the-board drug testing on the last day of 2013.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal employees have been fighting every step.

“The lower courts have taken the position that the people have a right to have a reasonable cause to be drug tested,” said Jeanette Wynn, AFSCME Florida Council 79, VP.

Cheryl Cullens says it’s insulting to be asked to take a drug test.

“It’s almost like assuming that everyone who needs assistance from the state is a drug attic, which is not the case,” said Cullens. “Honestly, it would be a waste of taxpayer money to go through the process when a decision has already been made about it.”

Supporters say testing will save taxpayers money in the long run.

“It needs to be automatic drug testing for new hires and random testing for anybody,” said Paul.

Welfare recipients who were drug tested before the program was stopped were testing positive at a lower rate than the general population.

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