Drug Testing

Florida becomes the first state in the nation to pass a law requiring the random, suspicionless drug testing of state employees. It will most likely be challenged in the courts.

The drug testing frenzy in state legislatures continues, with the Oklahoma House passing a bill requiring testing for welfare recipients, and candidates for political office, too.

The Florida legislature is one vote away from approving the mandatory, suspicionless drug testing of state employees. The courts may have something to say about that.

Faced with GOP demands to drug test people seeking unemployment benefits, the Democrats first fought them off, then accepted some testing as a compromise to get the payroll tax extension passed.

Bills to drug test welfare and other public benefits recipients were blocked in South Dakota and Virginia after state officials warned against such legislation.

Bills that would require state legislators to undergo drug tests have been filed in Missouri and Tennessee. They're an unsurprising extension of the drug testing mania that has gripped statehouses, but likely unconstitutional.

First, Florida's Republican legislature approved drug testing of poor people. Now it wants to do the same to state workers, and remove some of their collective bargaining rights along the way.

Indiana legislators found themselves voting to drug test themselves in a bid to get a welfare drug testing bill passed. It worked, and now the bill heads for the state Senate.

A bill that would subject welfare recipients to drug abuse assessments and possible drug testing if probable cause is found has passed a committee vote in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Bills targeting welfare recipients or people on unemployment insurance for drug testing are all the rage again this year.