Welfare

Welfare drug testing is done in Virginia this year. It was defeated by one vote in the Senate Monday.

It's drug testing bill time in state legislatures again, and a measure to drug test welfare recipients now awaits a Senate floor vote in Virginia.

In some ways, 2012 has been a year of dramatic, exciting change in drug policy, as the edifice of global drug prohibition appears to crumble before our eyes. In other ways it's still business as usual in the drug war. Here, we look at the biggest drug policy stories of the year.

Georgia's governor was quick to sign a welfare drug testing bill into law, but now he wants to wait for a legal challenge to a similar law in Florida before implementing that law that was supposed to go into effect July 1.

If you want welfare benefits in Tennessee, you will have to submit to drug screening that could include a drug test under a bill just signed into law.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) has signed a bill that requires welfare applicants to be screened for drug use and drug tested for "reasonable cause." If they test positive, they lose their benefits.

Bills to drug test people seeking public benefits have been all the rage at the statehouse this year, but they're having a surprisingly hard time passing. We have some reasons why.

Georgia has now followed Florida's lead in passing a bill requiring that welfare applicants undergo mandatory, suspicionless drug testing. Florida's law has been stymied by a legal challenge, and one is coming in Georgia, too.

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.

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