Should We Drug Test Welfare Recipients?

Should We Drug Test Welfare Recipients?

By Ryan Young

Should we drug test welfare recipients? It is a hot question that evokes an emotional response in many people. Anyone who has a Facebook account has seen one of those memes where somewhere that has decided to drug test welfare recipients and that we should do it here. Yes, we probably all know someone who fits the bill. Too lazy to work. Sitting home all day and getting drunk and high on the taxpayer dime. I won’t deny that this does happen and I certainly understand the emotional reaction people get when they think of people “living it up” on their hard earned tax dollars. But is that really the case? Does it happen as often as we think? What are the causes? And what happens to the most vulnerable users when the plug is pulled and the safety net is gone?

Addiction is no simple issue and certainly there are no simple answers. We are only beginning to scratch the surface on the root causes. For half a century we have been hell bent on treating drug use as a criminal and moral issue instead of a public health issue. Even the most conservative estimates show that the United States has poured over a trillion dollars into its war on drugs, with the net result being that drugs are more prevalent now than when Nixon first declared war on recreational drug use nearly fifty years ago. History has shown that increasing prison terms for drug users only drives the trade even further underground and the availability of drugs on the black market makes it easier for youth to get access to them.  Furthermore, people who have developed a problem are often afraid to seek help lest they end up in jail.

So what happens when we pull the plug? Firstly we will see a wave of addicts clogging up medical facilities when they are unable to procure their drugs. Addiction IS a disease and people WILL get sick when they are forced to go cold turkey. Without support, many will soon become homeless and in many cases will turn to crime to feed their addictions. Those who get caught will end up in prison, but at what cost to society? The cost per month to house a prisoner can be from five to ten times higher than the cost of sustaining them through social welfare programs, and in many cases the drugs are even more accessible in prison than they are on the streets. In turn we also will need more police resources to combat the rise in crime, which will cost the government even more money, not to mention the cost of the tests themselves which are certainly not cheap. So where does that leave us? What is the point? What are the real costs to society from such a “cost saving” measure?

In 2014 Tennessee introduced drug testing for welfare recipients on a large scale. Out of nearly thirty thousand applicants only 55 tested positive. That works out to about 0.19%, far below the national drug use average of 9.4%. With an average cost of two hundred dollars per test, the program turned out to be a big waste of taxpayer money and is now under review. A total of 7 states have introduced similar programs at a total cost of over a million dollars. Not surprisingly, the results are very similar across the board. In every case the number of positive tests was far below the national average for drug use. The evidence seems to suggest that the popular conservative myth of the rabid drug users living large on the taxpayer dime just doesn’t appear to have any factual merit. In Florida, their testing program was ruled unconstitutional and discontinued, proving that there are strong moral as well as financial arguments against these drug testing programs.

At the other end of the spectrum, Portugal decided to decriminalize all drugs in 2001. Despite the popular american drug  myths, the country was not run into the ground by drug fueled hooligans. In fact, things got dramatically better. The lifetime prevalence of drug use dropped dramatically, as did the number of drug related deaths. This wasn’t just because of decriminalization but due to the fact that Portugal coupled their new drug law policies with new health policies that recognize addiction as a public health issue, and they began to treat it accordingly. They shifted drug control from the Ministry of Justice to the Ministry of Health and instead of building new prisons they invested in rehabilitation centers and health clinics. They introduced a guaranteed minimum income program to expand the social welfare program which helped to lift many people out of poverty and beyond the siren song of addictive drugs. Major changes in policy, and even more importantly, the resources available over the past fifteen years, are a major factor in Portugal’s positive results with their drug policy.

Just this week Ireland has made “a radical cultural shift” in its drug policy. Small amounts of drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin will be decriminalized and safe injection sites will be set up for intravenous users. Moving from shaming addicts to providing them with a support network will be the basis of the new policy shift. Some dispute the opening of injection sites on the grounds that it promotes drug use, but the minister responsible stated that by opening safe injection sites they would aim to prevent vulnerable individuals from exposing themselves to further risk. This is indeed a radical shift in thinking from the traditional anti-drug establishment. While the program has many opponents, many more are praising it as a long awaited step towards lowering HIV/AIDS rates and breaking the cycle of drug and alcohol addiction in Ireland.

So what lessons can we learn from places like Tennessee, Portugal, and Ireland? Abandoning our most vulnerable citizens is not only morally questionable, but it doesn’t seem to make smart financial sense either. Many welfare recipients claim that the cost of recreational drugs are out of their reach, even if they wanted to do them, and the low numbers of positive results back up those claims. We have also learned that when it comes to reducing drug use among the poor, the best path is by empowering people caught  in the system to take control of their own lives. Creating programs that address the root causes of addiction and treating people like human beings has been proven to do much more for drug users than any prison term ever could.

So what can we do here at home to combat our increasing addiction problems and all of the bad elements that go along with it? As tragic as the recent shooting death of Mr. Wellman was, it is a sad indicator of the way things are going under the current system. Our approach to drug use and addiction is simply not working. If we want to seriously address the issue and make progress we need to look past the status quo and find new ideas to tackle this problem. It is time to heed the lessons of those who have gone before us and start to rethink our approach to drug use and addiction in this province. Only by changing our attitudes will we ever make headway and see real positive change.

Child Care Is Key To Population Growth

Child Care Key To Population Growth

By: Ryan Young

(Originally Published in The Telegram, June 13, 2015. See Link at Bottom)

The front page of The Telegram on June 5 proclaimed that “population issues are getting to a crisis point" Over and over in the media we hear about the need for a population growth strategy due to our continued declining population, and according to all indicators we are nowhere close to turning those numbers around.

But what I fail to understand is the reason why, when we discuss population growth in this province, there is no mention of the need for a provincial child-care strategy that encourages residents to have more children.

The Conservatives have tried offering financial incentives to encourage more births, but a thousand dollars and tiny tax incentives have failed to turn the tide on population issues. Most recently there has been a push to attract more immigrants to the province, but that, too, has had limited success as many of these newcomers quickly move on to bigger centres such as Montreal and Toronto where there are more opportunities for them and their families.

Through my work with child care, I have heard from hundreds of parents in this province, many of them professionals, who want to have more children but they are holding off due to lack of accessibility and the high cost of quality, regulated child-care spaces.

Many professionals, most often women, are being forced out of the workforce if they do decide to have children. We know this, yet for some reason we are still not looking at child care as a part of the population growth solution.

There will always be the handful of people who will ask why their tax dollars should pay for child care. The answer to that question could be quite complex if we were to get into all of the social benefits of quality, universal child care, but let’s keep the discussion purely along economic lines.

Study after study, all over the world, has concluded that investing in child care nets a return of $1.50 to $2.50 into the economy for every dollar spent. Even without taking into account that early education has been proven to create a better educated, less incarcerated society, the benefits of putting parents back into the workforce just makes sense.

When you add in the fact that the reason we need to grow our population is to grow our tax base to keep the economy strong, it makes even more sense that we would want our future workers to be highly educated, productive members of society. That is the capitalist dream after all.

Before we start coming up with radical plans and expensive programs to attract a wave of new residents to the province, why don’t we try supporting our own families and try to grow our population from within? All you have to do is listen to the people and remove the barriers that are holding young families back.

Sure, immigration should be part of the plan for our province to grow and diversify, but the real issues that are holding us back need to be addressed if we are going to get back on track. Newfoundland families want to have more children, they just can’t afford it. Remove the child-care barrier and the population will grow.

It really is that easy.

Original Publication:

http://www.thetelegram.com/Opinion/Letter-to-the-editor/2015-06-13/article-4178806/Child-care-key-to-population-growth/1

The Election Questions We Should Be Asking

The Election Questions We Should Be Asking

By Ryan Young

As the writ drops today in advance of the provincial general election on November 30th, the media is abuzz with questions for our politicians. The economy is the issue on most minds, with low oil prices causing job losses and general uncertainty. Issues like education and childcare, gender equality, and natural resource development are getting a fair amount of attention as well but the majority of talk so far has been about the candidates and not the issues. So far the biggest story has been Ryan Cleary deciding to run for the PC’s.

This is a common theme in Newfoundland politics, which is so much a popularity contest as it ever was. The high poll numbers for Dwight Ball and the Liberals is certainly not based on policy as they have not announced any yet, so one must assume that the issues really have no part in provincial politics.

So what are some of the issues that we are not talking about? Obviously jobs and education are important issues, but what are a few major issues that are hardly even given a thought?

Here are four discussions that we should be having prior to November 30.

Our Relationship with Canada

Under the rule of Stephen Harper, the relationship between Newfoundland and mother Ottawa has deteriorated to the point of being nearly non-existent. No doubt Danny Williams had a part to play in the frosty relations, as did the reluctance of the electorate to send tory MP’s to Ottawa in the wake of the ABC campaigns. But now, with the country dusting itself off from a marathon federal election and a newly elected Prime Minister sworn in, we need to look at repairing our relationship with the feds and try to finally become a working part in the great game of confederation.

Increased control of the fishery and offshore royalties should be a priority for any provincial government, as should be securing our fair share of Mr. Trudeau’s infrastructure spending.

For as long as we have been Canadians we have been fighting with Canada for the opportunity to be able to help ourselves. Now is the time for us to really pressure Ottawa to open its arms fully to the poor little cousin and welcome us in as equals once and for all.

Electoral Reform

One of the enduring issues during the recent federal election was electoral reform. The vast majority of Canadians are in favor of changing the way we elect our governments and the winning Liberals have promised that a new system will be in place before the next election in 2019.

Strangely, there seems to be much less interest in changing our own antiquated electoral system. With the Liberals in the driver's seat, it is no wonder that they have no desire to change the “first past the post” system that will hand them a large majority of seats proportional to the actual popular vote. In hindsight, maybe instead of reducing the number of seats, the outgoing PC’s should have made changes to the system to allow a House of Assembly represented by the percentage of the vote and not the number of seats. It might well have saved them from being blown off the map later this month and could possibly have given them a strong opposition voice Instead they will be obliterated on November 30th, and the Liberals will have their chance to rule with an unchecked majority.

It is true that Newfoundlanders are not big fans of change, but maybe it is time that we start the conversation about our electoral system in hopes that someday someone might take it seriously and establish a system that fairly represents the wishes of the people.

Renewable Energy

Despite our firsthand knowledge of how the boom or bust oil economy works, Newfoundland continues to forge ahead with all of its eggs in the petroleum basket. Sure, oil has changed the financial landscape of the province for the better, but recently we have been witnessing the other side of the industry, when prices drop and big projects get put on hold.

With all of the talk of future development of offshore oil resources, we hear very little discussion of investing our new windfall in a way that will benefit the people of the province long after the last barrel of crude has been pumped from the sea floor. Will we continue to reap the rewards of oil revenues, only to spend then on short sighted social programs that become unsustainable when the price drops? Why are we not talking about re-investing that wealth into renewable resources that can benefit the people of Newfoundland and Labrador for generations to come? Technologies such as bladeless wind turbines and tidal generating stations have advanced to the point where they are now affordable and commercially viable but yet we continue to collectively drag our feet and depend on big oil.

If Newfoundland and Labrador really wants to get serious about becoming an energy superpower we need to look past the oil resources and start developing in a sustainable way that will provide energy and jobs for generations to come.

Food Security

One of the scariest issues facing this province today is one that gets very little attention. To wonder about the reality of our food situation, just head to your local supermarket a few days after the Marine Atlantic ferries have been grounded due to bad weather. It doesn’t take long for the shelves to get bare and fresh goods to disappear. In rural areas, where getting fresh goods can be a challenge at the best of times, winter can be a nightmare on the food chain.

A vital signs report on agriculture in the province has called it “shameful” how little farmable land we have. The national average of per capita farmland is 1.19 hectares while NL has just 0.06 hectares per person. That is about the size of an average urban building lot. We currently have the smallest amount of farms in Canada. In 2006 there were 558 farms on the island compared to 4226 just prior to confederation.

As changing global conditions continue to wreak havoc on external food sources availability is reduced and prices rise. Can we do better by increasing the amount of farming here in the province. It might be worth looking into.

So as we move ahead towards the general election on November 30, let’s keep these issues in mind and ask them to the candidates when they come knocking at your door. There will never be political will to make the changes if nobody asks the questions. It will be no good to wait until December to ask them. Once the votes are counted it might be harder to get an answer.