On the front page of the Sun Journal on July 19, Gov. Paul LePage is reported as supporting the town of Madawaska’s consideration of tying some welfare benefits to random drug testing.

If the standard for random drug testing is receipt of government benefits, then random drug testing should be much more widespread. For example, folks like me (and, I’m guessing, also Gov. LePage) who take a deduction for charitable donations on their tax returns receive a government benefit in the form of reduced taxes paid as a result of the charitable deduction.

Similarly, those who deduct property taxes on their tax returns also receive a government benefit, and those who deduct mortgage interest payments (a huge percentage of our population nationally and one of the largest government benefits of any kind) also fall among those people who receive a government benefit. They should all also, in fairness, be subject to random testing if the standard for testing is to be receipt of government benefits.

Perhaps Gov. LePage and the selectmen of Madawaska who are considering voting in favor of those rules and who receive the other forms of government benefits should offer themselves up for random drug testing to set a good example for us all.

Stephen Hudspeth, Andover,