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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Vigil

DATE TYPED 2/24/2005 HB 799

SHORT TITLE San Miguel County Substance Abuse Prevention

SB

ANALYST Dunbar

APPROPRIATION

Appropriation Contained Estimated Additional Impact Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY05

FY06

FY05

FY06

$100.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Children Youth and Families Department (CYFD)

Department of Health (DOH)

Human Services Department (HSD)

Regulation and Licensing Department (RRLD)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 799 appropriates $100 thousand dollars from the general fund to the New Mexico

Children, Youth and Families Department to develop and implement a substance abuse preven-

tion program in San Miguel County. Any unexpended or unencumbered funds remaining at the

end of fiscal year 2006 shall revert back to the General Fund.

Significant Issues

San Miguel County is a noticeable service gap area in New Mexico, as identified by the New

Mexico Department of Health (DOH) Behavioral Health Services Division Prevention Services

Bureau. The Prevention Services Bureau funds a community resource library at the Luna Com-

munity College, but does not fund direct service substance abuse prevention programming in San

Miguel County.

House Bill 799- Page 2

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

This bill does not relate to CYFD’s established performance measures.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $100 thousand dollars contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the

general fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY06 shall re-

vert to the general fund.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

Include language in bill that requires that efforts are coordinated with the local behavioral health

collaborative and the interagency behavioral health purchasing collaborative.

The sponsor of the bill may wish to consider appropriating the funds to the DOH

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

According to the 2003 County Health Profile, published by the New Mexico Department of

Health, Public Health Division, Office of Vital Records and Health Statistics (found at

http://dohewbs2.health.state.nm.us/VitalRec/County%20Profiles/SanMiguelProfile.pdf

, retrieved

on February 7, 2005), fifty percent of youth less than nineteen years were killed in a motor vehi-

cle accident that involved alcohol. Between 2001 and 2002, the overall percentage of youth

DWI arrests decreased to nine point two (9.2) percent. In 2002, forty-five point five (45.5) per-

cent of San Miguel County residents were killed in a motor vehicle crash that involved alcohol

and twenty-one point seven (21.7) percent were injured. In 1995, the DWI conviction rate in San

Miguel County was twenty percent. In 1995, the rate was eleven point five (11.5) percent (the

lowest rate in the reported years). By 2002, the rate had climbed to fourteen point seven (14.7)

percent. Throughout the reported years, the San Miguel County rate has always been higher than

the state aggregate.

The “2003 New Mexico Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey: Report of State Results” reported

that “sixty-five percent of New Mexico students have tried smoking cigarettes (and that) fifty-

four percent of current (teenage) smokers had tried to quit smoking” (NM DOH and NM Public

Education Department [PED], 2004). Binge drinking by adolescents is on the rise, from twenty-

nine percent in 2001 to thirty-five percent in 2003 (DOH and PED, 2004). Thirty-day marijuana

use rates stayed stable since 2001, but thirty-day use rates of cocaine, inhalants, heroin, and

methamphetamines increased over the same time-period (DOH and PED, 2004). Youth percep-

tions of the ease in accessing marijuana had increased over the same time-period, while the per-

ceiving ease in accessing cocaine and other illegal drugs was more difficult (DOH and PED,

2004).

County-specific data, gleaned from the “1997 New Mexico Social Indicator Project Report,”

published in 1999 by the DOH, corresponds with the statewide aggregate data published in 2003

and referenced above. In the “1997 New Mexico Social Indicator Project Report,” almost eighty

percent of responding high school youth reported that they had used alcohol in the past year

(DOH, 1999). In the same report, about fifty percent of responding high school youth reported

that they had used tobacco in the past year (DOH, 1999). In the same report, almost fifty percent

House Bill 799- Page 3

of responding high school youth reported that they had used marijuana in the past year (DOH,

1999). In the same report, about twenty-five percent of responding youth reported that they had

driven while intoxicated in the past year.

An evidence-based curriculum for the instruction proposed in HB 799 may be important. There

are many websites that list evidence-based curricula, one being

modelprograms.samhsa.gov

.

Many curricula directly address alcohol use/abuse and are geared towards certain age popula-

tions, such as elementary-school students, middle-school students, high-school students, college

students, families, or work to change community norms around alcohol use/abuse.

BD/yr