GOP lawmakers move to ban welfare money at marijuana dispensaries

Published March 01, 2014- FoxNews.com

Republican lawmakers plan to introduce legislation next week aimed at preventing the misuse of the food stamp funds amid reports that welfare debit cards have been used to withdraw cash at ATMs at marijuana dispensaries in Colorado.

The “Preserving Welfare for Needs Not Weed Act,” is expected to be introduced on Monday by Colorado Republican Reps. Dave Reichert, Scott Tipton and Cory Gardner, KDVR.com reported.

The bill would add pot dispensaries to the current list of locations where states must block welfare electronic benefits transfer (EBT) cards from being used for purchases or ATM withdrawals, Reichert’s office told the station.

KDVR.com reported last week that at least 19 different dispensaries allowed electronic benefits transfer withdrawals inside their pot shops in January. Public records obtained by the station showed 56 transactions, totaling nearly $4,000.

A separate report by National Review Online said the amounts withdrawn ranged from $20 to $400, averaging $85.55. The maximum monthly benefit for the average household receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits is $462.

Last year, Colorado lawmakers passed a bill prohibiting access to welfare benefits at casinos, gun shops, bars, and liquor stores. State lawmakers recently failed to pass legislation that would have prohibited such transactions at pot shops, NRO reported.

“It’s time to close this ‘pot shop loophole’ before it gets any bigger,” the lawmakers said in a letter circulated among House lawmakers and obtained by The Colorado Observer.

“This bill does not comment on whether it makes sense for states to legalize the sale of pot, as Colorado and Washington have done,” the lawmakers wrote. “It simply says that, wherever pot is legally sold, welfare recipients shouldn’t be able to readily access welfare funds to pay for it.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/03/01/gop-lawmakers-move-to-ban-welfare-money-at-marijuana-dispensaries/






What a load of crock and even more waste of taxpayer money going to pay the salaries of these stupid law makers.  Stopping the use of pot shop ATM will stop abuse just as it stopped them from doing the same thing for casinos, bars and liquor stores.

The only way to stop the abuse is to stop giving people fungible benefits.  Use to be that people would have to go to food banks or even soup lines for FOOD…   but of course this lowers the dignity of people and therefore we must give them a lifestyle that makes them look ….  Productive… like cell phones.

The incentive to leave the welfare rolls is to not like being on them. If people can afford pot, booze and gambling, then by deduction, we are providing something that is much more than 3 hots and a cot at best and at worse we are enabling a lot of inappropriate behavour at tax pay expense.

Progressive always argue that people don't ride the rolls because they like it.  As with most statements of the sort, it is an over generality.   While we refuse to have honest open discussions about this problem.  Britain finally has... publicly and on TV.   Results are 1)welfare traps many people on welfare who would otherwise not desire to be their. 2)too large a percentage of people play welfare as a game where they get raises by finding new loopholes in the system and will not work as long as the system is so generous 3) Too many young women choose pregnency as a way to leave home because they know that they will recieve housing, furniture, food and healthcare without even having to complete school 4) Many single women who raise children using state welfare find reductions to be incredulous because "they are raising Britain’s next generation of leaders"