There is nothing wrong with needing help. Most of us let our pride, determination and independence get in the way of actually giving in and admitting that we need help. We feel that we should be able to do it all on our own, and if we can’t, then something must be wrong with us. Then asking for the help that we so clearly need, is a whole new difficult task on its own. On the other end of the spectrum, there are people who ask for help for everything, without lifting a finger and trying to do it on their own first and have nothing stopping them from going out and working. Even worse are the people who ask for help and use that help to support an unhealthy habit of theirs. This takes away from the people that cannot go out and work, the people who need legitimate assistance.
The question is, whose fault is it that people use money given to them by the government, namely welfare, to buy everything from designer clothes to drugs? Who is, or should be, responsible for making sure that does not happen? It is very disheartening for the people on those long lines, in those smoldering hot rooms, spending their last few dollars on cab money to get to welfare because they don’t drive. They should not have to see people show up in designer clothes, and in expensive cars. Some of the people that are actually in need, even overhear those same people telling their friends that they plan to blow their welfare money on drugs, even if it means cashing in their food stamps for money to do that. It is the governments’ responsibility to do all they can to ensure that the right people are receiving help. At the end of the day, unless you spend all day, every day with every person on welfare, you cannot be 100% sure that they won’t blow the money on drugs, but routinely drug testing them would be a start.
How do we stop this from happening? The answer is simple. Drug test every person who applies for welfare, and then every person who ends up qualifying for it should be routinely retested. This has to happen quite often because drug addicts are very clever and slick. They will use a drug that will be out of their system by the next drug test, which means the test will come back clean and there will be no proof that they ever used the money given to them to buy drugs. It is very unfair that people in dire need of welfare for a short time are turned down, yet people who abuse them will take advantage of the system for years. The sad part is that the system lets them get away with it, by not setting and enforcing rules such as a mandatory drug test.