Sentences to ponder

American Society of Addiction Medicine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From the ASAM blog:

…is there any evidence that the general public requires less treatment than do healthcare professionals and pilots? I would further ask, given the excellent outcomes generally obtained by PHPs and pilot recovery programs, why there have been no studies in which members of the lay public go through identical programs to determine what their long term outcome would be. Indeed, what happens when a non-healthcare professional or non-pilot goes through 90 days of rehab, and is then followed regularly by an addiction specialist physician while simultaneously attending twelve-step or similar self-help groups and being subject to random urine drug testing, all as the FAA requires of pilots requesting a special issuance medical, and as state medical boards generally require of physicians wanting to return to practice? Would they too have an 80-90% recovery rate?

[hat tip: Herb]

Only 2.6% of welfare applicants test positive

Not surprisingly, drug testing of welfare recipients does not confirm the assumptions of supporters:

Of the 4,086 applicants who scheduled drug tests while the law was enforced, 108 people, or 2.6 percent, failed, most often testing positive for marijuana. About 40 people scheduled tests but canceled them, according to the Department of Children and Families, which oversees Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, known as the TANF program.

Related articles

• No Savings Found in Florida Welfare Drug Tests (nytimes.com)
• Florida didn’t save money by drug testing welfare applicants, data shows (tampabay.com)