Same radical nonsense. How much will that cost the state? What probable cause do you have to do drug tests? Which drugs will you be testing for?? Nimrata you are already more unpopular than Ricky Scott are you shooting for the worst Governor in the country?? How about cracking down on those that willfully sell drugs. How about cracking down on the Doctors who hand them out like candy?? This is unconstitutional. PATHETIC

I think we should test all legistrators for drugs and alcohol comsuption. I think we should have Governors mentally tested.

Test all people on gov dole including haley president etc. What about drug co.s and doctors they are the drug pushers. Dont let let us make up our own minds we are stupid enough you should do it for us.

I belive it would save the state money. How can you really be looking for a job if you can't pass a drug test? I have to take a drug test when my company wants me to take one. If I fail it I don't get a pay check! Why should they? Get paid to get high? I think they should go after those on warefare to. Easy! Stay straight or no check!

We have created so many jobs thats why our unemployment went from 9% to 10.1% because we added jobs. In addition any jobs that were created by legistration PRIOR to Nimrata have been erased after her and the unemployment has increased. How do you try to make that a possitive??? This woman really has an additional problem.

Why don't we test everyone that gets federal funding. We should just test the entire State because I know they must be on drugs to have ever cast a vote for Nimrata in the first place. Stoooooopid

so she "heard" that half the people who applied to SRS tested positive. Sounds pretty dubious, but that aside, were any of these people receiving unemployment benefits. What Haley is purposely misleading voters on is that being unemployed does not mean you get unemployment benefits. You have to have been laid off (not fired) from a job. Unemployment benefits are for people who, through no fault of their own (company goes out of business, downsizes, etc) lost their job. They're not for every tom, dick, and harry who is jobless. People with drug problems are the kind of folks who get fired before they get laid off. This is just an expensive political gimmick for Haley to look tough, but us taxpayers will be on the hook for the cost.

I give her kudos! I hope she does the same for the welfare recipients. They shouldn't receive benefits if they are just going to give it to their drug dealers.

I agree with Mimi if this is a principled policy then everyone who is paid using public funds should be subject to it. This includes the legislature, the courts, and the executive branch (locally and nationally). If not it's just another salvo in the war against the bottom 50% earners of this country. I have longed for IQ and mental fitness tests being levied against elected and appointed officials.

Sure, test for drugs.
But test the airline pilots, the surgeons and the corporate lawyers. Druggies, all.
See where testing goes once these other jokers are included.

She's crazy.It hard enough out here to find employment.I know,I've been looking.Do you really feel it"s necessary to Test people who are homeless,laid-off,single parents and people with disabity like myself for unemployment wages and you couldn't test the polite who was flying the plane Aaliyah was in.Are you serious?Really!!! Governor you need your head examined.I gonna pray for you Governor.

Why stop at drugs? While I know alcohol is legal I am sure that it costs the state (both public and private) a lot of money in lost productivity due to hangovers, sloppy work, etc. She needs to have the courage of her convictions and carry this all the way!

Test for ALL drugs, including alcohol & tobacco (the most dangerous to health, and the most addictive). But they won't, they'll just test for weed, because it's trivial to detect. Same tests for Legislators and all staff, state contractors, everyone.

They won't because they can't... These are LEGAL substances people. They can restrict when and where you can smoke your cigarette and drink your alcohol during working hours but not after that. Some professions can dictate when you have to stop drinking before going to work.. (Pilots, Truck Divers, etc;) But for your analogy Tim, I'll say this: I could careless if people are killing themselves by tobacco or alcohol, What I DO care about is that they're doing it while living off my hard earned tax money I have to give up!!!

How quickly Nikki has swung out of control and turned into just another greedy, intolerant politician, one who spends tons of money on herself and her staff, staying in five-star European hotels, employing a PR flack who lies until he's caught, and delivers reports only when Freedom of Information is invoked and then the reports are heavily redacted. Now she's trying to pick on the poor, kick them while they're down, submit them to humiliating tests. Let's test our politicians for alcohol and drugs as well, let's make them take lie detector tests once a week. The biggest failures in our country are not the poor; they are unfortunate and put upon and Christ has commanded we help them. The biggest failures are our politicians, who are cowardly and greedy and have mastered only the dark arts of public relations and secrecy. Nikki, it turns out we hardly knew you and South Carolina is the worse for it. At least the last guy traveled coach and stayed in cheap hotels.

To Jim, you say you were in the military and you want drug testing. When joining the service did you not swear an other to defend the constitution of the United States. If so you are now promoting somthing that is unconstitional. No probable cause seaches. It is one thing for private companys to do this but it is another for a govermant to do so. I am glad to hear you don't care about anyone killing themselfs with tobacco or booze just as long as you don't have to pay for it. How compassionate of you. When these peole do die I hope they have private insurance or you will be paying for it through the nose with unpaid hostipal bills that the stae will have to pick up. I do thank you for your service and am truely sorry for your injuries. I served myself in the Marine corps and will always fight for the consitution of the United States. No unreasonable searches or seizures.
Tiger U.S.M.C.

Is this not finding a person quilty of a crime before trial??? Isn't the constitution an assumtion that all are innocent until proven quilty? Is this not assuming all are quilty?? This is a pathetic attempt to brand people who are out of work and suffering the most as the problem. She is in over her head as governor and completely incompetent of her duties. Do we have recall legistration in South Carolina??

Republicans thrive on creating boogiemen this is just another lame attempt do divide the country and fuel anger towards a made up problem for political posturing. They can only win elections if they create fear, the first step of oppression.

Why don't we just test all our children that attend the government funded school private or public, heck why stop at just people that are unemployed they are the least able to buy drugs. STOOOOOOOPIDITY

When you get like Jim and you can no longer debate the facts you go on a personal attack hoping that will some how distract you from the argument. He is a Republican through and through.

I would presume everyone knows that employees do not pay into unemployment benefits. But on the survey, evidently 16% that answered did not know that.

What evidence of this new found boogieman does Nimrata has that people using drugs and drawing unemployment are a problem??? Who exactly benefits from this extemism is it the unemployeed workers or the health Industries overcharging for these useless test of innocent people? What madness support a radical agenda that creates more government envolvement in people's lives???

why not ? Probably looking for pot in the pot heads blood...Or hard drugs heroin, cocaine, crack, you know the good stuff ... I think its a great idea. a simple blood test must be taken to recieve your unemployment checks..plus a list of places and names of where you applied for a job...The reason you were not hired (because you could not pass adrug test....)

Jonathan Allen

6:08pm on Friday, September 9, 2011

Geneva: drug dealers take food stamps now???? I'd love to know how that works. I'll tell you Johnathan and I'm surprised you don't know the answer to your own question... Food stamps get traded for things like drugs, cigarettes, alcohol and about anything else that can't be purchased with them. If SC went to a system like the one they have in Florida, with a state debit card type system where the individual has to show identification at the time of use, this would cut a lot or most of that out.

Sorry folks but this is nonsense. It's a waste of time designed to exploit the resentment of folks who hear horror stories about welfare cheats or may know someone who knows someone who KNOWS someone else who is cheating on welfare. And for the record, they tried this in Florida and found that only two percent of folks are guilty. If you ask me, we need to drug test our elected officials. Remember Thomas Ravenel . . .?

GOOD FOR HER!!

Since corporations are people, too, why don't we require all of the members of a corporation's management team to pass drug tests as a pre-condition to being able to take tax deductions or to receive any form of corporate subsidies. That's only fair.

Let see. I am drug tested so I can work. Not illegal right, My tax money goes to help these people right, Then the government is made up of us people. So we are the employers of these people why cant we require all of them to be drug tested. It should be mandatory

All the time I served in the military I was subject to a mandatory randomly chosen urine test expect to get picked to donate a specimen about once a month but you never knew when you were going to be taken to the latrine to donate your specimen..Usually the CQ SSG would hand you the plastic sample jar and you would fill it for him and hand it right over to him...In 4 years I never came up dirty...This was regular routine practice for the infantry...So whats the poblem flag burning draft dodging pro abortion baby killer.

Oh Ya By the way we didn't have a choice at all, Do you understand the word mandatory ??? Oh shucks the poor youngster has a problem...Oh what a shame..

Tell Larry that the drug testing fee will be deducted from your unemployment check ok ! !

Hey did all of you hear about the Major in the Russian Army over there in Vladstock at the end of the trans siberian highway right there on the Sea Of Japan but alongside of Korea...anyway he found out that his men were being fed dog foo and attacked the men that gave the dog food to his soldiers..He got booted out of the service...But its a tragedy when hat happens to anybodies soldiers..However I think I would have taken a group of about 10 soldiers on a rotateing schedule we would have built a boat or a raft and we would have all gone fishing for out food paddle the rafts out in the sea of Japan and catch some good food maybe even just gne out into the woods a little bit and done some hunting and gotten some real good food...could have dug pits and set traps if ammo was a problem even bows and arrows...I still commend the Russian Major but I wish he had tried to do it the other way...I can only sympathize with him and his men...If you running low on food then its time to go hunting and fishing make good use of your time and your location....While you have the time and the man power..Good luck happy hunting....Go get a good meal you all deserve it...

You know its getting late in the season over there so if you want to make it through the winter you better get the food supplies in... head out to the woods on patrols and start hunting and send some men out to the sea and start catching some fish...

There are and always will be bad apples in the pot. But what you can't do is punish all the good people for what bad people do. It is called "unemployment" not "drug screening." To single out the unemployed in an effort to reduced paid benefits is unconstitutional and discriminatory. Who do these politicians think they are. If anybody should be drug tested it should the people who are in control of our state and country. They should be tested and it should be mandatory. Politicians should be accountable because we have entrusted them to lookout for our best interest. On the other hand, those receiving unemployment benefits are not accountable to us but rather to themselves. Thus, if they spend their funds on drugs and not on their necessities than they put themselves in bad situations.

It is so sad that most of you have the same mind-set of these politicians, you are selfish, you are judgemental, you believe you are more valuable than someone who has less than you, and you want to control those who are less fortunate. I say don't be so narrow minded, don't prey on those whom you think are less than, because there is fraud, theft, and bad decision making among all classes of people. And if you're so concern about how your tax dollar is spent then you should be trying to make the governor and her crooks accountable. Stop being blind-sided by the small things and look at the BIG picture. The biggest crooks are those at the state capital.

I'm surprised that commentors haven't responded to the fact that the problem of drug use among those receiving benefits isn't nearly as severe as Gov. Haley believes. She said that 50% of applicants failed a drug test for employment at the Savannah River Site, when in fact that the Department of Energy, which manages the site on a day-to-day basis, said the figure was more like 1%, which is not a small disparity. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/09/nikki-haley-drug-test-exaggeration_n_955900.html

She's killing herself to bring jobs to S.C.? How is she killing herself? By taking a recent tax-payer funded jaunt overseas where she stayed in 5-star hotels and ate gourmet meals? Thanks Gov. Haley, but please don't be so tough on yourself, we'll get more jobs here without you doing anything more to kill yourself.

Gov. Haley seems to play very loosely with statistics. I guess she likes half of any group to be doing something wrong.

Haley is a LIAR. This is a quote from Jim Guisti, the spokesman for the SAvannah River site:

"Half the people who applied for a job last year or year 2009 did not fail the drug test," Giusti said. "At the peak of hiring under the Recovery Act we had less than 1 percent of those hired test positive."

I think Haley does seem to just throw around some facts..that aren't always acurate and then does some backing up! Why say that about SR if those aren't the facts?

Yes test for hard drug , remember marijuana is not a drug its an herb, a natural antidepressant

@Nick Foltz re: "Mimi you have no clue how many people abuse these state benefits."

where do i find your stats that show you have a clue...