Crazy In NC: Drug Testing Edition

Drug tests dispel a myth about North Carolina’s poor | News & Observer:

...About 7,600 Work First applicants were screened, and 159 were required to be tested. Of those, 70 didn’t show up for the test. Of the remaining 89, 21 tested positive. The positive tests are only 0.3 percent of those screened. Even assuming all the no-shows were drug users, the percentage is still less than 1.2 percent. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the rate of illicit drug use among Americans 12 and older is 9.4 percent.

The day before North Carolina lawmakers saw the low numbers, Tennessee lawmakers heard the same about their drug testing program for welfare recipients. Over the last year and a half, Tennessee has screened 39,121 people, drug-tested 609 and found only 65 who tested positive. That’s 1.6 percent of the total applicant pool...