The Kanawha Coalition is partnering with other Kanawha County Organizations on the Kanawha County Communities That Care Substance Abuse Partnership.
Below are some local drug and alcohol statistics from the Kanawha Coalition’s 2006 Community Health Assessment.
To learn more about the Kanawha County Communities That Care Partnership visit: http://www.kanawhacountyctc.org/
Youth
According to the West Virginia 2005 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) 42% of high school age youth said that they drank alcohol during the past month and 29% reported heavy drinking during the past month. The 2005 YRBS also revealed that 20% of high school age youth in West Virginia had used marijuana during the past month. Additionally, 11% said they had used cocaine at some time in their life and 16% had used inhalants.
2005 Kanawha County School PRIDE data revealed that 40.7% of 8th graders reported that they had drunk beer within the past year. This percentage increased to 50.5% among Kanawha County 9th graders, 48.1% of 10th graders, 54.6% of 11th graders and 57.3% of 12th graders. According to the 2005 PRIDE data, 24.1% of Kanawha County 8th graders had used marijuana in the past year, 32.9% of 9th graders, 33% of 10th graders, 36.5% of 11th graders and 40.8% of 12th graders.
Adults
According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) during the period of 1999-2001, 15.14% of West Virginia adults aged 18-25 reported having used an illicit drug (including marijuana) in the past month. This increased to 19.01% during the period of 2003-04 and again in 2005 to 20.1%.
Among West Virginia adults age 26 or older, during the period of 1999-2001, 2.62% had used an illicit drug within the past month, increasing to 5.02% during the period of 2003-04 and again in 2005 to 5.8%. (NSDUH)
In Kanawha County, adults age 26 and older, 3.31% reported using an illicit drug in the past month, compared to a state average of 2.64% (NSDUH 1999-2001 aggregate data).
According to the CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), in 2005 the percent of West Virginia adults age 18 and older who reported that they binge drank was 9.1% and the percent of West Virginia adults age 18 and older who were heavy drinkers was 3.1%. Binge drinking is defined as having five or more drinks on at least one occasion within the past 30 days. Heavy drinking is defined as an adult man having more than two drinks per day and adult women having more than one drink per day.
Kanawha County adults 18 and older has declined from 15.4% in 2002 to 8.8% in 2005. The percentage of Kanawha County adults who were heavy drinkers declined from 5.1% in 2002 to 2.5% in 2005.