Growing Support for Drug Testing of Welfare Recipients

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.