HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 10

(By Mr. Speaker, Mr. Kiss, and Delegates Compton,

Amores, Anderson, Angotti, Armstead, Ashley, Azinger, Beach, Beane, Boggs, Border, Brown, Browning, Butcher, Campbell, Canterbury, Caputo, Coleman, Craig, DeLong, Dempsey, Douglas, Doyle, Ellem, Ennis, Evans, Fahey, Faircloth, Flanigan, Fleischauer, Fletcher, Fox, Fragale, Frederick, Givens, Hall, Harrison, Hatfield, Hrutkay, Hubbard, Keener, Kominar, Kuhn, Leach, Leggett, Louisos, Mahan, Manchin, Manuel, Marshall, Martin, Mathews, McGraw, Mezzatesta, Michael, Morgan, Overington, Paxton, Perdue, Perry, Pethtel, Pino, Poling, Proudfoot, Prunty, Riggs, Romine, Schadler, Shaver, Shelton, Smirl, J. Smith, L. Smith, Spencer, Stalnaker, Staton, Stemple, Stephens, Susman, Swartzmiller, R. Thompson, R. M. Thompson, Trump, Tucker, Varner, Walters, Warner, Webb, Webster, C. White, G. White, H. White, Williams, Wills, Wright and Yeager)


[Introduced January 28, 2002; referred to the

Committee on Rules.]


Requesting the Department of Health and Human Resources in cooperation with the Department of Education, the Attorney General, the Department of Public Safety and Military Affairs and the Department of Transportation to conduct a study of the problem of teenage in-vehicle drinking and related drug use.

Whereas, Teenagers with their ready access to the motor vehicle have become increasingly mobile, adding a fluid dynamic to the manner in which teenagers consume alcohol and illicit drugs; alcohol and drug abuse by teenagers has not significantly declined in the past several years and remains unacceptably high, possibly, for certain groups, increasing in incidence and shifting to riskier settings; 1,695 fifteen to nineteen year olds were killed in alcohol-related traffic fatalities in 1998 across America; and
Whereas, The Aluminum Anonymous Project surveyed 775 miles of West Virginia roadsides for the discard rate of alcohol beverage containers, from Charleston to Grafton to Clarksburg to Weston to Charleston to Madison to Kentucky state line and from Morgantown to Wheeling and from White Sulphur Springs to Beckley to Charleston to Huntington in September, 1997, November, 1998 and April, 2000; it found an average of 800 beer cans-bottles per mile of road annually and, following up with "who's doing the tossing"? Interviews of professionals working with teens and adults in alcohol and drug settings who collectively estimated that fifty percent of the discarded alcohol containers were coming from teenagers; in spite of the 2001 National Survey of teenagers by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)that includes questions of drinking and drug use while driving and riding, perhaps for the first time at the federal level, too little is known about teenage alcohol and drug behavior after the car door closes; the January, 2001 "Report of the U. S. Surgeon General on Youth Violence", notes that although youth violence may have peaked it will remain a major problem; and
Whereas, The January, 2001, Report of the National Center on Substance Abuse and Addition, New York, NY, "Shoveling Up: Impact of Substance Abuse on State Budgets", states that only 2% of the $339 million total that West Virginia spends annually on substance abuse problems goes for prevention and treatment, while the remaining 98% goes for cleaning up the wreckage caused by substance abuse and addiction; therefore, be it
Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Department of Health and Human Resources in cooperation with the Department of Education, the Attorney General, the Department of Public Safety and Military Affairs and the Department of Transportation conduct a study of the problem of teenage in-vehicle drinking and related drug use by: (a) Assembling what is known and not known about this behavior, its dynamic, prevalence and incidence and; (b) assessing the effectiveness of policies and programs, including their development, implementation and evaluation and gauging the adequacy of interagency cooperation, including data sharing and program report; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Department of Health report to the regular session of the Legislature, 2003, on its findings, conclusions and recommendations, together with drafts of any legislation necessary to effect its recommendations including a policy and program that would more comprehensively incorporate teenage in-vehicle drinking and related drug use into the scope of the state's substance abuse and youth violence prevention strategies and the identification of new programs and their estimated costs.