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Growing Support for Drug Testing of Welfare Recipients

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Conservatives who say welfare recipients should have to pass a drug test to receive government assistance have momentum on their side.

The issue has come up in the Republican presidential campaign, with Mitt Romney calling it an “excellent idea.”

Nearly two dozen states are considering measures that would make drug testing mandatory for welfare recipients, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Wyoming lawmakers advanced such a proposal last week.

Driving the measures is a perception that people on public assistance are misusing the money and that cutting off their benefits would save money for tight state budgets — even as statistics have largely proved both notions untrue.

“The idea from Joe Taxpayer is, ‘I don’t mind helping you out, but you need to show that you’re looking for work, or better yet that you’re employed, and that you’re drug and alcohol free,’ ” said Edward A. Buchanan, a Republican who is the speaker of the Wyoming House.

Supporters are pushing the measures despite warnings that courts have struck down similar programs, ruling that the plans amount to an unconstitutional search of people who have done nothing more than seek help.

“This legislation assumes suspicion on this group of people,” State Representative W. Patrick Goggles, a Democrat, said during a debate on the Wyoming measure late Thursday. “It assumes that they’re drug abusers.”

About three dozen states have taken up such measures over the years. But the idea has prompted political debates across the nation as lawmakers seek new ways to fight off the effects of the recession.

This year, conservative legislators in 23 states — including Mississippi, where lawmakers want the random screenings to include a test for nicotine — are moving forward with proposals.

Mr. Romney, in an interview this month in Georgia, supported the idea. “People who are receiving welfare benefits, government benefits, we should make sure they’re not using those benefits to pay for drugs,” Mr. Romney said to WXIA-TV in Atlanta.

One of his rivals, Newt Gingrich, addressed the topic with Yahoo News in November, saying he considered testing a way to curb drug use and lower costs to public programs.

“It could be through testing before you get any kind of federal aid — unemployment compensation, food stamps, you name it,” Mr. Gingrich said.

In Idaho, budget analysts concluded last year that such a testing program would cost more than it would save, prompting lawmakers to drop the idea.

Recent federal statistics indicate that welfare recipients are no more likely than the general population to abuse drugs. Data show that about 8 percent of people use drugs illegally. Before a random drug testing program in Michigan was suspended by a court challenge, about 8 percent of its public assistance applicants tested positive.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 18 of the New York edition with the headline: Growing Support for Drug Testing of Welfare Recipients. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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