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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR Garcia, M.P.
ORIGINAL DATE
LAST UPDATED
1/23/08
HB 256
SHORT TITLE Help Eliminate Underage & Binge Drinking
SB
ANALYST Lucero
APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)
Appropriation
Recurring
or Non-Rec
Fund
Affected
FY08
FY09
$8.0
Recurring
General Fund
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Relates to: HB288 “Help Eliminate Underage & Binge Drinking"
Relates to Appropriation in the General Appropriation Act
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC Files
Responses Received From
Office of African American Affairs (OAAA)
Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD)
Department of Health (DOH)
Public Education Department (PED)
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
House Bill 256 appropriates eight thousand ($8,000) from the general fund to Office of African
American Affairs for expenditure in FY09 to contract with a community organization serving
Hispanic, African American, and low-income youth in southwestern and southeastern
Albuquerque to help eliminate underage and binge during through community involvement.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
The appropriation of eight thousand ($8,000) contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the
general fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of 2009 shall
revert to the general fund.
pg_0002
House Bill 256 – Page
2
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES
The New Mexico Office of African American Affairs (OAAA) fully supports HB 256.
The OAAA has ongoing youth education projects and this Bill will supplement our efforts to
educate minority youth about the dangers and adverse effects of underage and binge drinking.
In New Mexico, this type of youth behavior is a significant cause of youth not completing their
education, getting into trouble with law enforcement agencies and influencing youth to make
poor choices. This inappropriate conduct also has a bearing on teen pregnancies.
CYFD currently funds organizations out of the federal Enforcement of Underage Drinking Laws
grant to provide community outreach and education through school-based activities; media
campaigns; merchant education; and town hall meetings. Law enforcement operations are also
funded, including the Party Patrol, shoulder taps, compliance checks and saturation patrols. The
following communities and programs receive funds:
o
City of Albuquerque Police Department – Albuquerque
o
City of Moriarty - Moriarty
o
YES - Colfax County – Raton
o
Fort Sumner Schools - Fort Sumner
o
Los Alamos County - Los Alamos
o
Mothers Against Drunk Driving – Albuquerque
o
Department of Public Safety - Special Investigations Division – statewide
o
Sandoval County - Rio Rancho, Bernalillo, Cuba, Santo Domingo
o
San Juan County Partnership – Farmington
o
Rocky Mountain Youth Corps – Taos
o
YDI - Valencia - Los Lunas
The Departments of Health and Transportation also provide funding for the prevention of
underage drinking. This bill does not address coordination of efforts with other state departments
already addressing issues of underage drinking.
Department of Health (DOH) notes that HB256 addresses an important problem (underage and
binge drinking) in an important demographic/geographic sub-population (i.e., Hispanic, African
American, and low income youth in SE and SW Albuquerque). School-level data from the 2005
Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey (YRRS) support the targeting of underage drinking
prevention efforts to this sub-population: students attending one of the two high schools in the
target area had higher rates of both current and binge drinking than students in New Mexico or
Bernalillo County; and higher rates among Hispanic and African American students than among
White students. Rates from the other high school in the target area were not higher than state or
county rates, or higher among the targeted race/ethnic groups.
PED reports:
o
In 2005, 30.0% of students reported having their first drink of alcohol other than a few
sips before the age of 13. Among current drinkers, those who had a first drink of
alcohol before age 13 were more likely to be binge drinkers than those who had not had
a drink before age 13 (72.2% vs. 64.1%).
o
Most (71.0%) students said it would be very easy or sort of easy to obtain alcohol.
o
People aged 12 to 20 years drink almost 20% of all alcohol consumed in the United
States.
pg_0003
House Bill 256 – Page
3
Alcohol is the most commonly used and abused drug among youth in the United States. People
aged 12 to 20 years drink almost 20% of all alcohol consumed in the United States (Foster et al.,
2003). Binge drinking, defined as five or more drinks in a row, accounted for more than 90% of
this consumption (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2001). On average,
underage drinkers consume more drinks per drinking occasion than adult drinkers (IOM, 2004).
In 2004, there were over 142,000 emergency rooms visits by youth 12 to 20 years for injuries
and other conditions linked to alcohol (Office of Applied Studies, 2006).
Alcohol continues to have a significant impact on New Mexicans, with Native Americans having
the highest rate of impacts.
DOH adds that while the alcohol-related death rate in Bernalillo County was lower than the
statewide rate, it had the third highest drug-related death rate in the state (22.1 per 100,000
population). For the three-year period of 200-2002, this rate represents 381 deaths or 45% of the
state’s total. This far outnumbers drug-related deaths for the same time period in either Santa Fe
County (74) or Rio Arriba County (56), which ranked second and third, respectively. Bernalillo
County ranked sixth in the state for its drug-related hospitalization rate, and its high school
dropout rate was the third highest in the state.
Binge Drinking is defined by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism National
Advisory Council as a pattern of drinking alcohol that brings blood concentration to .08 percent
or higher. For the typical adult male, this could be five or more drinks; for females, it means four
or more drinks in a period of about two hours.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
reports that according to national surveys:
•
Approximately 92% of US adults who drink excessively, report binge drinking in the past
30 days.
•
The rate of binge drinking among men is 3 times the rate of women.
•
Binge drinkers are 14 times more likely to report alcohol-impaired driving than non-
binge drinkers.
•
About 90% of the alcohol consumed by youth under the age of 21 in the United States is
in the form of binge drinks.
•
About 75% of the alcohol consumed by adults in the United States in the form of binge
drinks.
•
The proportion of current drinkers that binge is highest in the 18 to 20 year old groups
(52.1%).
Binge drinking is associated with many health problems, including but not limited to
•
Unintentional injuries (e.g. car crash, falls, burns, drowning).
•
Intentional injuries (e.g. firearm injuries, sexual assault, domestic violence).
•
Alcohol poisoning.
pg_0004
House Bill 256 – Page
4
•
Sexually transmitted diseases.
•
Unintended pregnancy.
•
Children born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
•
High blood pressure, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases.
•
Liver disease.
•
Neurological damage.
•
Sexual dysfunction.
•
Poor control of diabetes.
Evidence-based interventions to prevent binge drinking and related harms include
•
Increasing alcoholic beverage costs and excise taxes.
•
Restricting the number of locations that sell alcoholic beverages in a given area.
•
Consistent enforcement of laws against underage drinking and alcohol-impaired driving.
•
Campus-based strategies to reduce high risk drinking among college students.
•
Physician screening, counseling and/or referral for alcohol problems.
PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS
CYFD has performance measures related to the enforcement of underage drinking laws. This
appropriation is consistent with those performance measures.
CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP
Relates to: HB288 “Help Eliminate Underage & Binge Drinking"
TECHNICAL ISSUES
The boundaries of the areas in Albuquerque, identified as southwestern and southeastern, are not
specified.
The sponsor of the bill may want to include “Native American" on line 19 following “African
American" and before the word “and"
OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES
DOH states that among youth in Bernalillo County who completed the Youth Risk and
Resiliency Survey in 2005, 49% reported they were current drinkers and 31% reported they had
binged on alcohol in the past 30 days. These rates are higher than the US average of 45% and
28%, respectively. Albuquerque’s southwestern and southeastern areas of the city have the
highest concentration of minority populations and also have a high rate of uninsured and persons
living in poverty. The southeastern area of the city is also home to Native American urban
Indian youth who experience significant impact related to alcohol abuse.
pg_0005
House Bill 256 – Page
5
The rate of alcohol-related deaths for African Americans from 2004-2006 was 23.2 (per
100,000) and 51.1 (per 100,000) for Hispanics. American Indians had the highest rate of
Alcohol-related deaths at 83.7. New Mexico’s overall rate at 46.5 for alcohol related deaths is
70% higher than the national rate of 27.3. (NMDOH, Office of Policy and Multicultural Health,
“Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Report Card", August 31, 2007).
According to a study at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC), excessive alcohol consumption accounts for 75,000 deaths and $184
billion in economic costs in the U.S each year. As for its effect on college students, alcohol is a
factor in the deaths of 1400 college students each year. College students currently spend $5.5
billion a year on alcohol, more than they spend on textbooks, soft drinks, tea, milk, juice and
coffee combined.
The majority of the alcohol consumed by underage youth in the United States is in the form of
binge drinks, new research found.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that college students commonly binge
drink and the proportion of current drinkers that binge is highest in the 18- to 20-year-old groups.
Published in the January issue of the journal "Pediatrics," the study further showed that 45
percent of students reported alcohol consumption in the past 30 days; 64 percent of those
students said they had five or more drinks of alcohol in a row. Most people who binge drink are
not alcohol dependent, the study noted.
The CDC highlighted that binge drinking is strongly associated with sexual activity, violence and
other risky behaviors as well as many health problems including alcohol poisoning, sexually
transmitted diseases, high blood pressure and unintended pregnancy.
ALTERNATIVES
HB256 proposes that funding related to the prevention of underage drinking be administered
outside the agencies that currently administer most of this type of funding in New Mexico (e.g.,
CYFD, DOH, DOT, PED, and DFA). As such, this bill may have the unintended consequence of
further fragmenting the administration and oversight of prevention activities related to underage
drinking.
DL/bb