Senate Bill 275 Essay (Essay Sample)

Senate Bill 275
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What Senate Bill 275 Holds for Beneficiaries of social Welfare Who Abuse Drugs in Violation of State Law
Executive Summary
The Senate Bill 275 in corporation with House Bill 4118 depict that, an applicant of the family independence program (FIP), must be conducted a substance abuse screening and testing by the Departmental Human Services (DHS. As per the bill, the pilot program of administration will be done to applicants who benefit for the social welfare fund. The rationale for justification of the program is due to the fact that most people who apply for the welfare have the potential to work for their own living yet they seek for government assistance. The program will be aimed to eliminate those people who apply for assistance yet they are capable of doing something that contributes in income generation.
The purpose of the welfare as enacted was meant to support the poor as they develop to the state of being self-reliant. The policy thus seeks remedy to this situation where people benefit from the welfare fund yet they are not vulnerable as they purport to be. To those remarks, a cross examination of the policy indications and its benefits in eradication of the above problem has been highlighted in this report. Additionally, an evaluation of the best working methods of the strategy offered by the policy and recommendation for the same has been indicated in the report. As denoted by Gauffin et al., (2013), the current drug usage application policy is not offering the required remedy in the scenario. By the policy, other additional problems do erupt. As a matter of facts, further recommendations for the policy are inevitable in solving the problems.
Introduction
Drug abuse is a serious menace in the society that has major adverse effects. As denoted by (Degenhardt, 2014), “repercussions of drug abuse in a society can’t be underestimated” (p. 57). The effects of drug abuse range from simple and mild infections to complex and serious problems. The effects of substance abuse leave are not only felt by the individual consuming them, but also to the family and relatives and society at large. The common health effects of substance abuse are laxity, laziness, truancy, non-commitment, losing emotional attachment and many others.
Substance abuse is a voluntarily effect. As stipulated by Young et al., (2014) people who engage in the act do so knowingly and any effect that may erupt from substance abuse is thus assumed to be by fate. Substance abuse causes unemployment. Due to the fact that people who abuse drugs are stimulated, they can’t perform and are unable to develop the skills required. This renders them jobless and no income is thus generated for their houses. To those who have the required expertise and skills are unable to attend to their jobs due to health problems. Family problems are also experienced by people who abuse substance. Education is also another problem for a person engaged in drugs as he can’t concentrate on his studies. Majority of the affected groups drop out of schools.
As a means of getting something on the table, adult people affected by drug abuse turn to apply for the social welfare fund meant for the vulnerable groups in the society. Their capacity of being vulnerable is justified by the fact that most of them have health problems and others are suffering from unemployment menace.
The senate bill 275 drafted that policy for implementation because, the state realized that people who would be otherwise employed in various institutions are languishing in poverty and depend on government resources for survival. The policy under implementation under the housing of the senate bill 275 and House Bill 4118 stipulate that
The DHS should administer a pilot program for testing in three or more counties.
The Bill requires DHS to screen and test applicants and also recipients for the FIP program if a suspicion allegation is made of validated substance abuse.
The Bill further retaliates that, if a person test positive for the screening test would be made ineligible for the FIP assistance. The condition would change after six months, if he or she refused to take the substance abuse test.
The bill consider refereeing an adult who had earlier tested positive to Department-Configured Community mental health (CMH) and progress with the program. The case only holds of the individual had a positive results to the tests.
The bill, however, provide that a child would continue benefiting from the program even if the parents of the child have been declared ineligible for the assistance. The bill proposes a protective person to receive the money on behalf of the child in that circumstance.
The bill requires provision of confidentiality of information the DHS receives through this program.
Importance of the policy issue
The program of testing for drug and substance use is designed to condemn use of substance abuse by majority of the people. The bill when implemented would help in reduction of activities that are related to drug abuse. Strong family relationships would be created since the individuals will have less time in engagement with drugs. Drugs are associated with fights, loss of emotional attachment and other social problems. The bill if implemented will make sure that those involved will never engage in some of these acts. When parents are stayed-off the drugs, the rights and fundamental issues of the children would be also protected (Choi et al., 2012). The bill offers a platform for change for people involved in drug abuse and later trained for being reliant. When the program is implemented, people will search for opportunities and finally the FIP goal of being self-reliant will be achieved. The bill also cates for the rights of children. Children who have their parents engaged in substance abuse will have their full compensation under a different person. This move makes it ideal for children lives not to be affected by their parents who are engaged in substance abuse (Heanue et al., 2012).
Critique of the policy issue
Despite of this policy being much promising on change of adults who engage in substance abuse, there are various challenges. It is clearly evident that some of the people who indulge themselves in substance abuse are not always financial constrained as the bill purports. The root cause of substance abuse should be tackled first before engaging in the program. Other causes for substance abuse also hold. The program of making people validating the eligible and ineligible have little impact on prevention of substance abuse among adult people. The problems that make people to indulge in substance abuse are not configured to availability of social welfare assistance but are also caused by other factors such as social aspects (Heanue et al., 2012).
The motive of the policy in saving capital has not been achieved. Taxpayers’ money which ought to be salvaged by the policy would be consumed by the program expenditure. According to the outline of the project little or less amount of money would be saved. The government and other officials involved will take the huge share of the allocation in running the program which would otherwise be left for the poor group to benefit. To advocate for discouragement of substance abuse, other methods of campaigning against drug abuse would be used. Failure to reward these poor people, the social welfare amount would then constitute to disappointment and yet little amount of money would be achieved.
Stigma and stereotype associated with tests would hurt those benefiting. Player (2014) further denotes FIP applications and recipients screening would also make some people with genuine cases to avoid the process. Exploitation and poor life conditions would eventually take toll for the poor.
Cases of corruption and fraud would become common. It is much common in many incidences that in scenarios involving illegitimacy of a circumstance, corruption is involved. People with genuine case would then be eliminated in the case of screening. Additionally, in the case the system lacks integrity, genuine subject applicants would be subjected to more stigma and humiliation.
Employment is an aspect that holds significant. Employment is becoming an alarming issue in major parts of the world. Many people...