Reflections on the Early History of National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): Implications for Today

Abstract

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) was formed in September, 1973 from a Division of the National Institute on Mental Health (NIMH), from the three-decade old Addiction Research Center (ARC) in Lexington Kentucky, and from the two year old Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention (SAODAP), the original White House drug office. The legislation authorizing NIDA was passed by both Houses of Congress and signed by the president with bipartisan unanimity in response to the drug abuse epidemic, which had begun in the late 1960s. NIDA was the embodiment of the new Federal drug abuse strategy that, for the first time, balanced the traditional focus on law enforcement (supply reduction) with a new focus on treatment, prevention, and research (what became known as demand reduction). The current article offers a review of the early history of NIDA and its implications for future research.