Not Quite Ready for Prime Time

It's been debated on the House floor, touted on talk radio, endorsed by the state Republican Party, the exclusive subject of a new Web site, and has even been reported as having been introduced, but "a GOP delegate's attention-grabbing drug testing bill is everywhere but before the Legislature," The Associated Press reports.

"Berkeley County lawmaker Craig Blair has been promising for over a week to introduce a bill requiring drug testing for people who receive food stamps, unemployment or 'welfare,' which could refer to several federal programs," AP's Tom Breen explains.

The article also said that "in a session devoted largely to fiscal policy, with little in the way of major initiatives or new proposals, Blair's idea is stealing the spotlight."

But the available draft "doesn't address cost, which will be one of the factors lawmakers weigh in looking at the proposal," while "the stiffest criticism of the idea so far has come from one of Blair's fellow Republicans: Randolph County Sen. Clark Barnes," Breen notes.

(Updated: The Web site had included an online poll, which asked visitors to choose between:

A. Yes! Let's get people off drugs and back to work!
B. I'm too stoned to answer right now.

The latter answer was prevailing before the poll's wording was changed Thursday morning.)