Innocent Until Proven Guilty, Unless You're Poor.

So the governor of fucking Florida (damn I hate that state with the passion of a thousand fiery furnaces) has decided that poor people are guilty of drug use and must be tested first before they can qualify for TANF (temporary aid to needy families, or welfare).

I've given this rant before, but let's do it once again for the newbies.

We don't require business owners to pee in a cup before receiving government welfare checks (in the form of tax credits). Nobody made TARP recipients line up to have bits of their hair cut out for drug testing (though I am pretty sure that Bolivian marching powder is a main part of many a bankster's day). But poor people, particularly poor, single mothers, are assumed to have committed a crime (probable cause for search needing to exist before the government gets to test you) and must pee in a cup so that their kids can be housed and fed.

Fuck that. No seriously, fuck that. The government has no fucking right to treat its citizens, ANY of its citizens, like criminals for simply applying for assistance. Do fucking lobbyists have to get drug tested? They are doing the same damn thing on a grand scale. How about the fucking Chamber of Commerce, are they peeing in a cup? No.

Requiring poor people to be drug tested is a GROSS violation of the constitution. What will the government do with the results? If you test positive, will those results be turned over to the police? What happens to people who've been self-medicating for depression (poverty is fucking depressing) or anxiety or bipolar or pain? What if they are applying for benefits specifically so they can receive medicaid and get actual medical relief? Will it be a hearty "fuck you" from the state. So sorry you've lived without healthcare and had to treat yourself, but because of that you can't qualify for healthcare and will have to treat yourself.

I've been pretty damn lucky that the things I use(d) to self-medicate (caffeine, nicotine, the occasional bottle of wine) are legal. But that doesn't mean it think it's okay to violate the constitutional rights of poor, mostly women, almost always parents just so Rick fucking Scott and the douchebags in tacky blue suits can feel superior.