Our Mission The Hanover Cares coalition mobilizes community awareness of substance abuse issues into actions that develop and support healthy opportunities for youth and parents. These opportunities are targeted at the reduction of substance abuse in our community.

Our Promise To create educational opportunities and community-building events throughout the year that promote wellness, confidence and equip our youth with strategies for good decision- making.

Marijuana Use Past Year

Center of Disease Control Study In a nationwide study of 15,000 high school students Eighteen percent of surveyed students in 2011 reported smoking a cigarette in the past month, while 23% reported smoking marijuana in the last 30 days.

Marijuana use among teens rose in 2011 for the fourth straight year—a sharp contrast to the considerable decline that had occurred in the preceding decade. Daily marijuana use is now at a 30-year peak level among high school seniors. 1 in 15 high school seniors is smoking pot on a daily basis. “Synthetic marijuana,” which until earlier this year was legally sold and goes by such names as “K2” and “spice,” was added to the study’s coverage in 2011; one in every nine high school seniors (11.4%) reported using that drug in the prior 12 months.

Why Do We Care? Research shows adolescence is a crucial time for brain development and marijuana use can permanently change the teen brain. Young people who start using marijuana before age 18 are much more likely than adults to become addicted to the drug. One in 6 kids who try marijuana before age 18 will either abuse it or become addicted to it compared with 1 in 25 adults.

Alcohol Use Last 30 Days

Availability

What the parents say

Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant – (SPF SIG) Hanover County’s I CARE recently received a Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF-SIG). The grant will be administered by VCU, who has contracted with I CARE to receive $145,000 for a year. The grant was awarded to thirteen localities across Virginia to target the reduction of motor vehicle crashes (MVC) involving drivers who are under the influence of alcohol and between 15 and 24 years of age. The grantees were localities that demonstrated high per capita rates of MVC involving alcohol-impaired drivers years of age based on per capita crash data for the period The mean annual Virginia rate for that period was 32 crashes per 10,000 people. The Hanover county rate was 41.2 crashes for every 10,000 county residents, or a rate 29% higher than the state average. Hanover County had 174 MVC in this particular category over that period, or 1.7% of the state total. Only 13 counties had a higher percentage of the state total.

Crash trends. Crashes 3 year total year total %Reduction

Who is the driver? Driver's AgeSex#of MVCs Population /10,000 [(#mvcs/2009 pop)X10,000] Estimated annual rate/10,000 [2 year rate/2] State 2 year rate% variance 15-17Male32, % Female02, Total35, % 18-20Male232, % Female41, % Total273, % 21-24Male442, % Female102, % Total544, % 15-24Male707, % Female146, % Total8413, % Hanover County has 1.7% of all VA MVC involving alcohol and year old males

Hanover County = 92

When do they occur?

What day and time?

Where are the drivers from? Hanover33.1% Bearverdam44.1% Montpelier66.2% Richmond88.2% Ashland1111.3% Mechanicsville3839.2% Other2727.8%