West Virginia Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors would like to voice strong opposition to House Bill 3007, which would amend West Virginia code for the purpose of implementing random drug testing "for all applicants for, or recipients of, federal-state and state assistance in the form of welfare or food stamps or both."

The bill also makes provisions to implement random drug testing for recipients of unemployment.

HB 3007 specifies that any random screen that is positive for the presence of any scheduled medications would result in re-screening in "no less than thirty days, but not to exceed sixty days." The bill states that anyone who tests positive a second time "shall be ineligible to receive, or prohibited from reapplying for, such benefits for a period of two years." This legislation has been presented as addressing the drug abuse crisis we have in West Virginia, and offering help to those persons receiving public assistance who are abusing drugs.

WVAADC feels this program would do neither of the aforementioned.

As addiction professionals, we felt obliged to point out that identifying substance abusers achieves nothing in the absence of substance-abuse treatment. HB 3007 makes no mention whatsoever of substance-abuse treatment.

We have a critical shortage of substance-abuse treatment funding, capacity and manpower in our state already without identifying one additional drug user. How does this legislation purport to help anyone?

We further want to point out that HB 3007 is yet another unfunded mandate. How will West Virginia pay for these random drug screens in an economic climate such as we have right now? Additionally, we would like to mention that West Virginia is going to need a solid plan of action for addressing all of the children who would have no food as their food stamps have been taken for at least two years. We may also want to make sure we have additional manpower in foster care as a number of these children will undoubtedly need to be placed in foster care. Foster care brings up another issue: who is going to make the call to Child Protective Services when a parent with children at home is discovered to be using drugs? And what of the additional staff CPS will need?

Lastly, WVAADC finds this bill extremely discriminatory. The random drug testing plan targets West Virginians who are the most challenged among us. We feel in the world we live in today, a large number of West Virginians would far rather keep their jobs and not need unemployment, but if the company they work for folds, the decision is made for them. Then they are going to be singled out and drug tested, given that the unemployed are more likely to use drugs? That is discriminatory!

As addiction professionals, we certainly are not taking exception with the concept of drug screening. We are objecting to screening done prejudicially and without a treatment plan to offer to those who are identified and who suffer from the disease of addiction. We feel that House Bill 3007 puts the cart before the horse. If we start any plan of attack on the epidemic of substance abuse, we need to start with addressing substance-abuse treatment issues first. It is through that type of plan we can have a real impact on the problem of drug abuse in our state.

Taylor is president and Aldred-Crouch is public policy chairwoman of the West Virginia Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors.