Tennessee state Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey wants to require anyone getting any form of government assistance to be tested for drugs.
“I’m in favor of drug testing for people that are on any kind of benefits. Whether it’s unemployment compensation, workers compensation or whatever it is, because I don’t think that we need to be supporting that kind of lifestyle,” Ramsey said.
He wants drug testing for recipients of welfare and food stamps, and is even agreeable to drug testing corporate executives whose businesses receive millions of dollars in state taxpayer cash as incentives to create jobs in Tennessee.
Gov. Bill Haslam said he is not fully convinced on drug testing state assistance recipients mainly because he is not yet sure of the costs that go with the drug testing program as well as of its legal implications.
“I think we need to see what sort of federal leeway we have there and I haven’t gotten that data back on what the Feds will let us do and who would implement that and how it would be implemented,” Haslam said.
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