Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Opioid epidemic quiets GOP calls for food stamps drug testing

Republican leaders say they will reject a drug testing requirement when they consider food stamp legislation this week, a dramatic change in position that's mostly a response to the nation's opioid epidemic.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway said he’ll vote against any drug testing amendment to the Agriculture and Nutrition Act, otherwise known as the Farm Bill, which is set for committee markup Wednesday.

“Given the heightened awareness today of the opioid crisis in this country as well as other drug addictions, punishing people at this point in time when we are working to get them off these programs may be counterproductive,” Conaway said.

More

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I believe in the places where they did a trial run of this it ended up costing more taxpayer dollars to drug test everyone than what they would have saved.

Anonymous said...

Amazing. They trade food $$ for drugs and they don't want to punish anyone? May as well just hand them the dope for free like everything else they get.

Anonymous said...

So, on other words, we're just going to avoid both problems by voting against this amendment.

Such courage!

Anonymous said...

I thought that was why we were testing. Republicans are just as liberal as the left. Only alternative is to go independent I guess.

Anonymous said...

One day you will figure out both parties are lying to you and are only looking out for the wealthy donors on each side.

Anonymous said...

I agree but If President Trump lost it would have become ONE Party of the radical left and one world bank in DC. Thank goodness President Trump won and is actually doing what he campaigned on. Amazing actually.

Anonymous said...

Right!!

Anonymous said...

Since President Ronald Reagan era and until today, the U. S. of America have fought a war on drugs to no avail. As long as these dope-fend continues to receive tax payer government assistance, this problem will continue. The federal government need to stop using my state and federal taxes to help those who truly do not want to help themselves. All they want to do is get drunk, get high and pass on diseases

Anonymous said...

But we still have to be drug tested to work