Concord, NH – The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Services (BDAS) is announcing it is receiving a multi-million dollar federal grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP). The Strategic Prevention Framework Partnerships for Success II Grant (SPF-PFS II) is a three year grant totaling $3.6 million.

“We are extremely grateful for the opportunity this grant will provide to our State,” said BDAS Director Joe Harding. “This will help us to continue to build on the prevention efforts we have started here in our State. Through a previous SAMSHA grant, we collaborated with our regional network coalitions, the Governor’s Commission, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and a number of other partners to establish a Statewide, science-based, community level alcohol and other drug prevention system. This grant will allow us to continue building our system and direct our prevention efforts to those at greatest risk in areas of our state with the greatest need.”

BDAS collaborated on this grant with the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and New Hampshire Center for Excellence. The SPF-PFS II goal is to leverage the state’s existing prevention system structures and its resources to impact substance use among high need populations in identified communities to reduce: 1) underage drinking among persons aged 12 to 20; and 2) prescription drug misuse and abuse among persons aged 12 to 25.

Although NH is often ranked as one of the healthiest states in the nation there remain significant health risks related to substance abuse that continue to challenge the State. Specifically, the 2008-2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reported NH’s rate of past month alcohol use for those 12 and older to be the highest rate among states and territories (63.9%) and the highest for 18 to 25 year olds (75.12%). According to the 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), NH’s representative sample showed past month alcohol use rates among 9th through 12th graders to be 38.4%, on par with the U.S. rate of 38.7%, while the rate of binge drinking for that same population was 23.8% compared to the U.S. rate of 21.9%. Regarding prescription drug misuse and abuse, according to the 2008-2009 NSDUH, NH’s rate of non-medical use of pain relievers among 18 to 25 year olds was the second highest in the U.S. at a rate of 16.7%. New Hampshire is also grappling with a meteoric rise in drug-related deaths, with over 80% attributable to prescription drug abuse. Specifically, between 2001 and 2011, drug-related deaths in NH rose well over 300% from 60 deaths in 2001 to 200 deaths in 2011.