Senate Bills - 110th Congress

S. 1011—The Recognizing Addiction as a Disease Act of 2007

On March 28, 2007, Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) introduced S. 1011, the Recognizing Addiction as a Disease Act of 2007, to redesignate the name of the National Institute on Drug Abuse to the National Institute on Diseases of Addiction (NIDA) and to change the name of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to the National Institute on Alcohol Disorders and Health (NIADH). The changes would remove the pejorative term "abuse" from the institutes' names and are intended to more clearly link the concepts of addiction and disease. This legislation aims to identify addiction as a neurobiological disease and diminish the social stigma and discrimination that is often a barrier to seeking treatment, and further a common understanding of diseases of addiction. S. 1011 was referred to the Senate HELP Committee. S. 1011 is a companion to H.R. 1348, the NIDA and NIAAA Name Redesignation Act, which Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) introduced on March 6.

Legislative Update (May 2007): Redesignation of Institute Names