This nasty old recession is making things tough for everyone out there, even our drug-addled citizens.
A story on the Dominion Post website today says prices for methamphetamine are on the rise but the product is in short supply and lacking potency. Which is, when you think about it, a lot like politicians: the less they do the more they cost.
But back to the meth-heads. According to a report compiled by brain boxes at Massey University, nearly 70 per cent of regular methamphetamine users said they commonly used social welfare payments to buy drugs last year.
Work and Income head Janet Grossman said last night that it did not seek information from other agencies, such as police, to identify drug users who might be on a benefit.
“Our job is to provide people with the financial assistance they are entitled to – not to monitor how their entitlements are spent.”
Maybe someone should be charged with taking responsibility for monitoring how those entitlements are spent. After all, there are plenty of people out there working in jobs where they will lose their jobs and income if they take illegal drugs.
There are plenty of industries where the workers must agree to random drug testing. Why not beneficiaries?