Dear Colleague:

Welcome to Understanding Drug Abuse & Addiction: Myths vs Reality. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is pleased to cosponsor this town meeting to provide scientifically based information on drug abuse and addiction with the Office of the Governor, State of Washington; Office of the Lieutenant Governor, State of Washington; Washington State Senate; University of Washington Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute; and Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse.

This meeting has three goals: to promote public awareness of NIDA-sponsored research and how this information can be used to address local drug problems, to hear about local needs for science-based information and materials, and to work with local organizations to facilitate dissemination of these materials. Specifically, this meeting features the results of research conducted by NIDA grantees and explores the application of these results to the problems of drug abuse and addiction. Topics included in today's meeting include

• Current research findings about drug abuse and addiction
• How the brain is involved in addiction
• New treatment advances
  • Medications development
    
  • Behavioral strategies
    
  • Benefits and outcomes of treatment
• HIV, hepatitis, and other health consequences of drug abuse
• Drug abuse and co-occurring mental health disorders
• Principles of effective prevention
• Research to Practice and Policy Roundtable

As NIDA celebrates its 25th Anniversary we invite you to help us disseminate the research-based information about drug abuse and addiction from this meeting to the media, civic organizations, educators, health care providers, State and local antidrug coalitions, and others in your communities.

Thank you for attending this town meeting. I hope it is useful to you and that together we will forge a successful partnership in response to the drug abuse problem in Washington State.

Sincerely,

Alan I. Leshner, Ph.D.
Director
National Institute on Drug Abuse

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