Report maps U.S. drug, mental health issues by state

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Vermont leads the United States in marijuana use, while Utah has the highest number of people reporting mental health problems, U.S. government researchers said on Thursday, based on a new state-by-state report.

They said substance abuse and mental health issues vary widely by state, but all struggle with these problems to some degree.

"This report shows that although states may be uniquely affected by serious public health problems like underage drinking, every state and region must confront these issues," said Terry Cline, chief of the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which compiled the study.

The report found rates of underage drinking in 2005 and 2006 ranged from a low of 21.5 percent in Utah to a high of 38.3 percent in Vermont.

Yet Utah had the highest rate of adults reporting serious psychological problems at 14.4 percent in the same period, compared with Hawaii, which had the lowest at 8.8 percent.

The report takes a state-by-state look at 23 measures of substance use or mental health problems, based on combined data from national surveys done in 2005 and 2006.

It includes data from 136,110 people and offers the most recent and most comprehensive look at individual state issues to date, said Dr. Westley Clark, a substance abuse expert at SAMHSA, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

"Our hope is this report will allow people to do strategic planning to address specific issues," Clark said in a telephone interview.