Welfare Drug-Screening Wildly Popular With Voters, Except for Democrats

Florida's mandatory drug-testing of welfare applicants faces a court challenge from the ACLU, but it's clearly a winner in the court of public opinion.

A Quinnipiac survey released Wednesday showed that Florida voters support, by a 71-27 margin, the law requiring drug screening of participants in the Temporary Aid for Need Families program.

Republicans back the law 90-8 percent, as do independent voters, 75-24 percent. Democrats split 49-50 percent.

Voters overwhelmingly like the requirement that welfare recipients must pass drug tests to receive benefits. But the issue is now before the courts, where the
only opinion that matters is that of the judge, said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling.