Neb.: Hearing on Thursday on welfare benefits discrimination bill
Published: February 10, 2010
Currently, a welfare benefits discrimination bill is pending in Nebraska, which would allow the Department of Health and Human Services to test recipients of cash assistance under the Welfare Reform Act for controlled substances, and deny benefits for a year to recipients who fail the test. This bill hurts patients who use marijuana for medical purposes, as well as occasional recreational marijuana users. Using marijuana should not be something that the state can use to deny a family the living stipend it so desperately needs.
Let your thoughts on this legislation be known to your legislators. Please contact your senator and urge her or him not to support L.B. 940. This legislation is unacceptable and discriminatory and should not advance beyond committee. Ask him or her instead to refocus their priorities on exploring money-saving legislation that further reduces penalties for marijuana offenses.
This bill will be having a hearing in the Health and Human Services Committee on Thursday, and we invite you all to attend and to urge your legislators to do the right thing.
When: Thursday, February 11, 2010, at 1:30 p.m.
Where: Health and Human Services Committee
Room 1510
Nebraska Capitol
15th & K Streets
Lincoln, Nebraska
What: The Health and Human Services Committee will discuss L.B. 940, which will allow the Department of Health and Human Services to test recipients of cash assistance under the Welfare Reform Act for controlled substances, and deny benefits for a year to recipients who fail the test.
This bill mandates that the state must have reasonable cause to believe the recipient is using a controlled substance before requiring the test. L.B. 940 will make an exception for recipients with a prescription for the controlled substance in their systems, but that exception will not cover medical marijuana patients. Additionally, the recipient will get an administrative hearing after the test, but only to determine the accuracy of the test, and not to raise any substantive issues. The bill will also refer all recipients who are denied benefits to substance abuse programs.
This bill will severely impact seriously ill patients who use marijuana for medical purposes for serious condition. Nebraska is already punishing such patients by not having a law protecting them from prison for using their medicine. This bill adds insult to injury by taking away what for many of these low-income patients is their only income, especially given that seriously ill people are more likely to be low-income and unemployed than the general population.
With some bad timing luck, even a welfare recipient who uses marijuana — which is safer than alcohol — only once or twice a year could lose his social safety net for a whole year. Nebraska legislators need to defeat this bill, and, barring that, need to remove marijuana from it or create an exception for those who use marijuana for medical purposes.
If you are a patient, a loved one, a medical professional, or a member of law enforcement or clergy who might be interested in speaking out and you know someone that might be affected by the passage of this bill, please contact us at state@mpp.org to see how you can be of special help. Please include your nine-digit ZIP code so we can identify your legislators, and please share your connection with the legislation.
Thank you for supporting the Marijuana Policy Project. Please pass this on so that even more Nebraskans can participate in reform.
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