PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Rhode Island has been awarded a five-year $11 million federal grant for substance-abuse prevention work which will include new research about prescription drug abuse among the state's teenagers and young adults.
The grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is aimed at reducing under-age drinking and marijuana use among 12- to-17-year-olds, and funding data collection and epidemiological research about prescription drug abuse in Rhode Island, according to officials at the state Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals.
About 11 percent of Rhode Island public high school students abuse prescription medications in their lifetime, according to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by SAMHSA.
About $2 million per year will be used to fund prevention efforts around underage drinking and marijuana use; the remaining $200,000 per year been set aside for the epidemiological research and data collection on prescription drug abuse, said Charles Williams, of the state BHDDH.
Part of the grant will be used to assist 12 communities identified deemed as having the greatest need, Williams said, in their efforts to prevent underage drinking and marijuana use among teenagers. They are: Burrilville, Cranston, Cumberland, Foster, Johnston, Lincoln, Little Compton, Newport, New Shoreham/Block Island, Providence, Scituate and Westerly.