Candidates in Illinois may have to submit to drug tests

A bill has been proposed that would require “candidates for the legislature” to submit to drug tests, which turns the Chandler v Miller case of 1997 on its head. Illinois representative Bill Mitchell (R-Forsyth) has introduced HB 1402, to require candidates for the legislature to submit, along with their ballot access petition, the results of a “substance abuse test”. The test must have taken place within the 60 days before the petition is submitted. Mitchell is not a neophyte state legislator; he was first elected to the Illinois legislature in 1998. Mitchell is also a prominent campaigner for welfare change, suggesting that drug testing of welfare recipients would go some way to reducing the cost to the taxpayers . He says: “Representative Brown and I have filed a package of bills to reform our welfare system and save the State tens of millions of dollars. Governor Quinn and his Democrat allies in the legislature just stuck taxpayers with a $7 billion tax hike. Yet they have opposed these common-sense welfare reform proposals in the past. We feel that taxpayers should not have to pay for welfare benefits for illegal aliens and drug abusers”. This type of welfare testing has been suggested in various states in recent months, and it will be no surprise if Illinois move forward with this legislation. No doubt other states will do something similar as 2011 progresses.]]>