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 example, we held the National Conference on Drug Abuse Prevention Research in Washington, D.C., last September. These meetings stimulate new research and foster collaborations between NIDA researchers and scientists from these organizations. 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. 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.