On the Surface...

The growing number of poor Americans now face a new indignity, thanks to a legislative trend sweeping through state capitols: mandatory drug tests for needy citizens. This year alone, at least 30 state legislatures (including Louisiana, Massachusetts and Illinois) have considered bills that would require people to pass a drug test to become eligible to receive welfare benefits. Some states — including New Mexico, Maine and Kentucky — have proposed extending the practice to those collecting unemployment, Medicaid and food stamps.
~ from New Drug Tests Target the Poor by Rania Khalek ~

You know, on the surface, this doesn't seem like such a bad initiative. Who wants to fund people's addictions with public moneys? But dig a bit deeper and policies like these smack of extreme unfairness.

Are there such drug tests for companies that contract with the government? Do executives from Halliburton and Blackwater (they go by a new name now) who fail such tests lose their right to government contracts for up to a year?

Of course, the answer is no. In fact, big corporations can be found to defraud the government outright and they don't lose their ability to snatch up more pricey federal contracts in the short-term future!

So, it seems that we have a big double standard here. Poor people have to toe an exceedingly rigid line, but wealthy individuals and corporations don't.