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Director's Column
Volume 12, Number 1
January/February 1997 |
Taking Drug Abuse Research to the Community
NIDA Director Dr. Alan I. Leshner
NIDA research has produced a tremendous amount of scientific knowledge
about preventing drug abuse and treating addiction. However, this knowledge
has not yet reached many American homes, schools, and communities. As a
result, long-held mistaken beliefs about drug abuse continue to hold sway
in many segments of our society. These prevailing myths about drug abuse
harm those with drug-related problems, their families, and the health care
professionals who work with them.
NIDA Town Meetings have proven
to be an effective
vehicle
for communicating what science has discovered
about the nature of drug abuse and addiction and for
increasing knowledge about effective
strategies to
prevent
and treat these problems.
To address this situation, NIDA has taken a number of steps to bridge
what I call the "great disconnect," the large gap between the
scientific facts and the public's perceptions about drug abuse and addiction.
In 1996, we organized and sponsored a broad range of meetings that have
been fostering a continuous exchange of information between the Institute
and professional and community audiences. These meetings include
- national constituent conferences at which representatives of national
organizations involved in the field of drug abuse prevention and treatment
formulate recommendations that are helping NIDA shape new research initiatives
and increase the dissemination of scientific information about drug abuse.
(For more information on the Third Annual Constituent Conference held last
November in Lansdowne, Virginia, see "Constituents
Help Shape NIDA's Research Agenda.")
- national conferences that disseminate the latest research findings
about effective prevention and treatment strategies to practitioners. For
example, we held the National Conference on Drug Abuse Prevention Research
in Washington, D.C., last September. (See "National Conference Showcases
Effective Drug Abuse Prevention Programs.")
- regional conferences that respond to important emerging drug abuse
issues, such as the Regional Symposium on Methamphetamine Abuse, Treatment,
and Prevention, which we held in December in California.
- conferences held in conjunction with the annual meetings of other scientific
organizations interested in drug abuse issues. These meetings stimulate
new research and foster collaborations between NIDA researchers and scientists
from these organizations. Last year, we sponsored the Conference on Drug
Abuse (CODA) at the American Psychological Association Convention in Toronto
and held several concurrent sessions on drug abuse-related neuroscience
research at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington,
D.C.
- special outreach activities to increase understanding of advances in
drug abuse science and practice in the educational community. These activities
include presentations I made on the biology of addiction at the University
of Alaska in Anchorage, at county-wide public school meetings in Maryland
and Virginia, and at this year's Brain Awareness Week events at the National
Institutes of Health.
Drug abuse is a problem that affects every community in America. Therefore,
last year we also launched a major initiative to increase the dissemination
of science-based facts about drug abuse and addiction at the local level.
This initiative consists of a series of Town Meetings to take research findings
from the laboratory to local communities, where they can be applied toward
preventing and treating drug abuse. At these Town Meetings, people who are
on the front lines in the fight against drug abuse learn what research has
shown about the true nature of addiction and how to use research findings
to develop strategies to prevent and treat drug abuse and addiction. In
addition, the meetings give community participants the opportunity to discuss
with NIDA what additional research we could conduct to help them improve
drug abuse prevention and treatment at the local level. (See "NIDA
Goes to Town," p. 1.)
To date, we have held Town Meetings in Miami; Tampa, Florida; Columbus,
Ohio; St. Louis; and Dallas. To ensure that community concerns were addressed
at these meetings, we worked closely with local community antidrug coalitions,
other service organizations, and universities to cosponsor the meetings;
to determine the issues that the meetings would cover; and to inform their
members, policy makers, and community residents interested in drug abuse
issues about the meetings. As a result, 300 to 400 civic leaders, policy
makers, public officials, drug abuse prevention and treatment professionals,
and concerned citizens came together with prominent NIDA-funded scientific
researchers at each of these meetings to share their special perspectives
about drug abuse research and its application to prevention and treatment.
These NIDA Town Meetings have proven to be an effective vehicle for communicating
what science has discovered about the nature of drug abuse and addiction
and for increasing knowledge about effective strategies to prevent and treat
these problems. These meetings also have been expanding the dissemination
of the latest research findings to community leaders, practitioners, and
parents and fostering ongoing exchanges between local drug abuse scientists
and meeting participants. And they have been increasing our awareness and
knowledge of local issues and needs as we plan NIDA's future drug abuse
research initiatives.
This year, we will continue to take the latest scientific information
about drug abuse and addiction from a research setting to the community
by working with local organizations to sponsor at least three more Town
Meetings. This will help ensure that researchers, practitioners, civic leaders,
parents, and community members will continue to learn from each other and
work together to develop, identify, and apply the most effective means of
alleviating the social and public health problems of drug abuse and addiction
in our Nation's communities.
From NIDA NOTES, January/February, 1997
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