So I haven't blogged for a while - a circumstance that I'll attribute to the fact that life happens and other priorities like having a family and moving house have preoccupied my time. However, looking at what is in the medical and general news media recently, I feel compelled to take to the keyboard once again...
The Coalition Government here in Australia are yet again proposing to drug test welfare recipients (Newstart and Youth Allowance), and putting any who test positive for drugs on an income management program which quarantines payments on to a cashless debit card. This is despite similar proposals being ditched after facing criticism from experts in the health and welfare sectors, and the lack of evidence that similar programs overseas have achieved any meaningful outcomes.
Government rhetoric is full of emotive statements about ensuring welfare recipients using money to "put food on the table, send the kids to schools and pay the bills rather than on drugs", and how "[b]eing on drugs stops you getting a job". This is clearly a simplistic view of the factors that contribute to inequality in our community.
With the current levels of Newstart payments, affording the basics like housing, food, clothing and health care is already a struggle. Not only will mandatory drug testing cause further stigma for people on welfare, income management with a cashless debit card would prevent people from engaging with the more flexible cash economy that helps them to make ends meet. Buying second hand goods like clothing is more difficult without cash; buying cheaper fruits and vegetables at the end of the day from a market couldn't be done without cash.
And what of the testing itself. Only a minority of welfare recipients use drugs. Mandatory testing would have to test many people to get a single positive result. Screening tests (usually immunoassay based) have significant false positive and false negative rates; confirmation tests (usually GCMS) are expensive. Testing is intrusive - formal urine drug screening involves passing urine whilst being observed by a worker in the collection centre. A testing program would be a costly way to achieve very little.
As an Addiction Medicine Physician, I am appalled by how hard the government is pushing this policy in the absence of any evidence to support their position and in defiance of the many voices (many of whom come from a background of significant expertise) raised against it. As a taxpayer, I am appalled by the utter waste of money that this proposal represents.
