Fla. welfare recipients less likely to use drugs

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Preliminary figures on a new Florida law requiring drug tests for welfare applicants show they are less likely than other people to use drugs, not more.

One famous Floridian suggests it's the people who came up with the law who should be submitting specimens.

Columnist and best-selling author Carl Hiaasen offered to pay for drug testing for all 160 members of the Florida Legislature in what he called "a patriotic whiz-fest." Several of the law's supporters say they're on board.

"There is a certain public interest in going after hypocrisy," Hiaasen said yesterday, two days after he made his proposal in a Miami Herald column.

"Folks that are applying for DCF [Department of Children and Families] money normally wouldn't be standing in that line, and on top of that humiliation they now get to pee in a cup so they can get grocery money for their kids," he told The Associated Press.

Gov. Rick Scott and other supporters of the law, the only one of its kind on the books in the United States, say the tests will save the state cash by weeding out people who would use welfare money on drugs. Critics say that just a few months after it went into effect, the law has already refuted the idea that people receiving public assistance are more likely to use drugs.

Preliminary figures show that about 2.5 percent of up to 2,000 applicants for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families have tested positive since the law took effect in July. Two percent declined to take the test.

The Justice Department estimates that 6 percent of Americans 12 and older use illegal drugs.

The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the law, saying it violates welfare applicants' constitutional right against unreasonable searches. For that reason, a federal appellate court struck down a similar Michigan law in 2003.

Some of the law's most ardent backers say they're willing to take Hiaasen up on his offer.

"Tell him to write the check," said Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Bennett. "I'll be the first one to take it." The Bradenton Republican said he'd even sponsor a bill that would require legislators to get urine tests -- and require Hiassen to pay for them.

"Half the citizens of the state of Florida probably think half of the Legislature is on drugs, anyhow," Bennett cracked. "Nobody knows which half. That's the problem."