Report Title:

Appropriation; Substance Abuse and Treatment Education

Description:

Appropriates funds for DOH, in coordination with DOE, to establish a substance abuse and treatment education program in public middle schools.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

2084

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2006

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND TREATMENT EDUCATION.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that abuse of illicit substances continues to be a serious issue among Hawaii's youth. University of Hawaii researchers have linked substance abuse among teens with lower levels of academic performance and motivation, and with an increase in interpersonal violence. In 2003, the department of health released the findings of a study documenting adolescent drug use trends in Hawaii over the last fifteen years, entitled "Hawaii Student Alcohol, Tobacco, And Other Drug Use Study (1987-2003): Hawaii Adolescent Prevention And Treatment Needs Assessment" (DOH Study). The DOH Study found that seven per cent, or more than 6,500 public school students between grades six and twelve, require treatment for substance abuse. It recommends strengthening substance abuse prevention in schools and notes that a comprehensive substance abuse prevention program must begin no later than the fourth grade and should continue through high school.

The DOH Study surveyed grades six through twelve about the use of six substances: alcohol, marijuana, stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens, and club drugs. It found that across all grade levels, the incidence of alcohol use is higher, and its onset is earlier, than for all other substances. It reports that alcohol and cigarettes have high initiation rates clearly beginning by the age of nine or younger. The recommended age for alcohol and tobacco education is age nine, with education efforts continually reinforced in the years that follow.

The onset of illicit drug use occurs as early as age nine, but most typically between the ages of thirteen and sixteen. The use of marijuana, however, is begun by the age of nine or ten, with, on average, eight per cent of the students reporting use of marijuana by the time they were age twelve, and fifteen per cent of the upper grade students reporting use by the time they were age thirteen. Thus, efforts to educate about the dangers of marijuana use should begin by age nine, with the strongest efforts occurring in the eighth grade.

The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds to establish a statewide substance abuse and treatment education program in public middle schools.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $          , or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2006-2007, for the department of health, in coordination with the department of education, to establish a statewide substance abuse and treatment education program in public middle schools.

SECTION 3. The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of health for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2006.

INTRODUCED BY:

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