$11 million federal grant to help fight youth drug use

Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2004 | 9:47 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A federal grant of more than $11 million is coming to Nevada to combat youth drug problems and underage drinking.

The money will be distributed over five years in grants mostly to local nonprofit groups or local governments for programs for youngsters.

Gov. Kenny Guinn said Monday that the money from the federal Center for Substance Abuse Prevention "supports the previous $9 million received in 2002 to continue to address the problems of substance abuse among our youth in Nevada at the community level, especially targeting underage drinking."

Guinn said Nevada was one of only 19 states receiving such funding.

Maria Canfield, chief of the state Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, said after the Legislative Interim Finance Committee formally approves the acceptance of the money, a plan will be drafted for spending it.

She said she expected the first disbursement of the money within the state will be in January.

About 85 percent will be diverted to local programs and 15 percent will be used to oversee and evaluate the success of the projects, she said.

A report issued last December by the state Department of Education said the number of high school students who said they had been offered, sold or given an illegal drug on campus declined to 34.5 percent in 2003 from 35.7 percent in 2001. But the percentage climbed more than two percentage points at the middle school level to 20.9 percent from 18.8 percent in 2001.