I found this article on PolitiFact Rhode Island. Seems Doreen Costa,a Republican and a member of the Tea Party thinks it would.
http://www.politifact.com/...
I have long held the belief that drug testing would cost more than it saved. Let's look at Rhode Island, the smallest state in the union, to find some insight.
Using Ms Costa's own numbers, she estimates it would cost $25 to $35 per person to test, PolitiFact estimates it would cost in the neighborhood of $130,000 to $180,000 to do one round of testing. This does not take into account re-testing or new people who come in and draw minimum benefits, then leave.
According to Ms Costa the person applying for benefits would pay for the tests and if they pass they would be reimbursed. My problem with that, only in terms of saving money, is only people who are clean would apply. Or they would simply wait until they are clean and then take the test.
I then went to @PassYourDrugTest.Com and got the length of time certain drugs stay in your system. It is real simple, they give you information on how to pass a drug test, including masking agents and the amount of time a particular drug stays in your system. Included are times for different type of test like blood,saliva and hair.
If like most states they use a urine test the amount of time is very short. Amphetamines stay in your system for only 1-2 days. Cannibas 1-10 days. Cocaine 1-10 days. Looking through the entire chart I find nothing stays in your system over 10 days.
Plus, we are talking of people who were working for an extended period of time, not crack heads that live in the street. These people in most cases did nothing wrong but had the wrong job at the wrong time.
My conclusion is it has nothing to do with keeping hard core drug addicts from receiving aid. It has more to do with a constituency that hates anyone who needs any type of benefits, unless it is them drawing the benefits.