Baraka_Guru

And ignoring poverty is like ignoring children. The more you ignore them, the harder things get for them. Children are a large group of people who are put at high risk. Whether it was their parents' "fault" that they exist or are in poverty in the first place is beside the point: The children should be helped. I don't even want to begin to think that there are people in wealthy nations who are willing to allow children to go without food or home. And this brings up another point: There are those on welfare who own homes, and are hoping to god they don't lose them. They are on welfare because some shit hit some fan somewhere and they're trying to hold on and ride out the worst situation of their lives.

In some of the statistics I've looked at in both Canada and the U.S., at least half of the people on welfare are so as a result of job loss, and up to a quarter are so because of a disability. And many of them are there for an average of two years. Sure there are those who abuse the system, there are abusers within every system.

It just so happens that in this particular system there are drug users. I'm sorry, but it's a very common trend to find drug users in low-income situations. Sometimes the drug use is a cause, other times it is a side effect. But to take away their last line of means will only make their situation worse. Even a selfish view would suggest that this isn't desirable; after all, if a drug user can't get money (or help), where do they turn?

I would be against drug testing for welfare recipients; it would seem to be an unnecessary reason to increase the cost of the system. Even if the government could save money by stopping the cash flow to those who they find to be drug users, the overall cost inside and outside of the system (monetary and non-monetary) would be too high.

If you don't like drugs, there are other ways to fight this problem. The best way to do this is to prevent the circumstances under which people decide to do drugs in the first place. You might find this is tied to poverty somehow, but this is another topic.

EDIT:
It boils down to a lack of compassion (which is not a liberal conspiracy); keeping in mind that compassion is rooted in both thought and action.

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot