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Date: Thursday, July 9, 1998            
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Contact: SAMHSA Press Office (301) 443-8956

HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today announced $122 million in incentive grants to 14 governors' offices to mobilize and coordinate state-wide efforts in preventing drug use among youth. With today's announcement, a total of 19 States are now participating in the new State Incentive Grants for Community-Based Action. This program supports governors in retooling their substance abuse prevention activities to achieve measurable results in reducing youth drug use.

"In developing this program, we asked Governors to take a fresh look at all the funding streams focused on preventing substance abuse in their state and identify the needs and gaps," Secretary Shalala said. "Then we asked for innovative plans that leverage resources and to reach youth, parents and families in their homes, schools, and workplaces with proven substance abuse strategies. I'm pleased that we've been able to not only award grants to states with the best proposals, but also to work with them to help move their programs forward."

The 14 states -- Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, and Washington state -- will each receive about $3 million per year for three years. A full 85 percent of these funds will be directed to community prevention programs.

"This is a unique opportunity for governors to coordinate the efforts of various state agencies that must work together to address the multifaceted problem of substance abuse," the Secretary noted.

"The President has set a goal of reducing illicit drug use by half in 10 years. To link our efforts to achieving the President's goal, we are working closely with our state incentive grant recipients to develop common outcome measures and to establish methods for collecting and comparing data on reducing alcohol, tobacco and marijuana use among 12 to 17 year olds," said Nelba Chavez, Ph.D., Administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). SAMHSA is the HHS agency responsible for the State Incentive Grant Program.

To help measure the progress made against youth drug use at the state level, the Clinton Administration has expanded the annual National Household Survey on Drug Abuse to support 70,000 interviews each year, up from 18,000 in previous years.

"This information can help us see what is working best and where improvements are needed," Secretary Shalala said. "To make the best strategic use of our resources, we need good information." She called on Congress to provide the resources needed by SAMHSA to conduct the expanded annual survey.

Illinois, Kentucky, Kansas, Oregon, and Vermont began to work on the incentive grant initiative last September when each received a similar 3 year award.