Regarding "Jobless Benefits Drug Test Proposed," Metro, March 17:

Sen. Mike Bennett's proposal to randomly drug test unemployment recipients is preposterous. To receive unemployment benefits you have to have worked so many quarters, lost a job through no fault of your own and be actively seeking unemployment. If a person is actively seeking employment, they are subject to being drug tested anyway. Why go through the expense?

I'm not sticking up for drug users, but I'm pretty sure 99 percent of people currently collecting benefits, including me, are spending the lowly sum on bills, food, gas, clothing, etc., not drugs. I don't consider unemployment compensation to be a "government handout" and believe there are other programs where drug testing should occur.

Maybe some of Bennett's cohorts run a drug-testing lab. What other reason would someone have for growing government expenses in an already down economy?

Randell Peterson, Tampa

[end]