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As Some States Implement New Marijuana Laws, Science Should Guide Public Health Policy

December 08, 2016
After the election on November 8, marijuana is now or will soon be legal for adult recreational use in eight states plus the District of Columbia. Careful thought should be given to creating regulatory frameworks that prioritize public health. Science needs to be the guide. Read More.

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Recent Posts

The Leaky Pipeline! Career Level Disparities in Neuroscience Programs for URMS

Increasing Diversity in Research

June 2014
Diversity enriches any workforce, and that is especially true of science. People with different backgrounds and experiences may think in different ways, produce different ideas and insights, and approach scientific questions from different angles. Read More.

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National Longitudinal Study of the Neurodevelopmental Consequences of Substance Use

May 2014
A major new longitudinal study aims to examine the effects of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and other drugs on the developing brain. Read More.

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National RX Drug Abuse Summit

April 2014
The Summit brings together people on all sides of the problem, including representatives from government agencies, law enforcement, and the treatment world. Read More.

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UNODC Recommends Treating Addiction as Health, Not Legal, Issue

March 2014
Earlier this month I went to Vienna for the 57th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), part of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). There I chaired a working group that presented a set of recommendations to the CND concerning the most appropriate, scientifically informed way to approach the problem of substance use disorders: as a medical, not a legal, issue. Read More.

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Naloxone as packaged in a box for distribution

Naloxone—A Potential Lifesaver

March 2014
Naloxone can reverse or block the effects of other opioids. It can very quickly restore normal respiration to a person whose breathing has slowed or stopped as a result of abusing heroin or prescription opioids, or accidentally ingesting too much pain medication Read More.

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Glucose metabolism in orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in healthy and cocaine-addicted subject.

Addiction and Free Choice

February 2014
The recent death of Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a result of drug addiction has provoked many thoughtful, sympathetic responses in the media, from people in recovery who understand how hard it is to wrestle with addiction, as well as from scientifically informed journalists who understand that addiction is a disease. Read More.

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Another Reminder of the Terrible Toll of Addiction

February 2014
This past weekend Americans were shocked and saddened to learn that one of our greatest actors, Philip Seymour Hoffman, had died at age 46 of an apparent heroin overdose. Hoffman’s death, in the prime of his life and career, is a poignant reminder of some of the harsh realities of a disease that 17.7 million Americans struggle with and that all too often cuts their lives short. Read More.

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National Drug Facts Week

January 2014
This week—January 27 through February 2—is the fourth annual National Drug Facts Week. Every year since 2010, NIDA has sponsored this observance, during which schools and other community organizations host events to share and spread the science on drugs and drug abuse to teenagers. Read More.

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Monitoring the Future Reveals Both Encouraging and Discouraging Trends

December 2013
Every year, the NIDA-supported Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan asks 8th, 10th, and 12th graders across the country about their current and past drug use and their attitudes toward drug use, providing us with an invaluable barometer of youth drug trends from year to year. Read More.

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Remembering Nancy Mello, an Addiction Research Visionary

December 2013
A professor of psychology (neuroscience) at Harvard Medical School and a long-time NIDA grantee, Mello was a pioneer in the study of addiction, having done some of the first laboratory research on alcohol self-administration and withdrawal effects in people with alcoholism. In 1985, Mello and her husband, Jack H. Mendelson, MD, published Alcohol Use and Abuse in America, which examined the history of alcohol in American society as well as the biology of alcohol abuse. Both also made major contributions to our understanding of other substance use disorders, exemplified by their 1980 Science paper, which was the first to suggest that the drug buprenorphine could be used to treat opioid dependence. A little over two decades later, buprenorphine received FDA approval, and is now one of the most commonly used and effective treatments available for opioid addiction. Read More.