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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×

E History of Drug Addiction Research: Key Discoveries/Events, National Policies, and Funding

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×

APPENDIX E History of Drug Addiction Research: Key Discoveries/Events, National Policies, and Funding

Event

Funding

Historical Time Line

Theme

Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and surgeon general of the Continental Army, was one of the pioneers of drug addiction research in the new America.

 

1784 Pioneer researcher in substance abuse, Dr. Benjamin Rush, published a pamphlet entitled, "An Inquiry into the Effects of Ardent Spirits on the Mind and Body"

 

 

 

1806 F.W.A. Sertürner, a German pharmacist, extracted the first addictive ingredient, morphine, from crude opium, revolutionizing pain control

Morphine and Pain Control

Availability of morphine and the new hypodermic syringe during the Civil War created the "army disease."

 

1868 Congress enacted the Pharmacy Act, requiring registration of individuals dispensing drugs

 

 

 

1875 Key elements of human addiction to morphine identified (e.g., fixation, withdrawal)

 

 

 

1897 Gioffredi's study on possible immune system antibodies to morphine or other toxins

 

The Bayer Company sold cocaine in pure form, as well as morphine and heroin, through pharmacies beginning in 1898.

 

 

 

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×

The soft drink Coca-Cola contained cocaine until 1903, when it was replaced with caffeine.

 

 

 

 

 

1906 U.S. Pure Food and Drug Act required that fraudulent claims be removed from patent medicines and that habit-forming ingredients be disclosed

Narcotic Control

 

 

1908 Nobel Prize winner Elie Metchnikoff's work helped to develop the theory of "autointoxication" related to narcotic dependence

 

 

 

1909 International Opium Commission convened in Shanghai to begin international discussions concerning the problems of narcotics and the narcotics trade

 

 

 

Congress banned opium imports

 

 

 

1913 Rockefeller Institute created the Bureau of Social Hygiene to study drug addiction and its role in society and impact on criminality

Substance Abuse and Criminality

 

 

1914 Valenti's study of the hypothesis that toxins produce abstinence effects

 

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×

Event

Funding

Historical Time Line

Theme

Around World War I, a growing fear of drug addiction prompted more and more restrictive legislation to prevent easy access to drugs. The Harrison Anti-Narcotics Act of 1914 set forth a 6-year federal effort to control distribution of opiates and cocaine. In 1915, doctors who prescribed narcotics to addicts to help them avoid withdrawal were prosecuted.

 

Congress passed the Harrison Anti-Narcotic Act, which began to regulate the production and sale of opiates and cocaine

 

 

 

1919 Supreme Court ratified the Harrison Anti-Narcotic Act in Webb et al., v. United States, holding that doctors may not prescribe maintenance supplies of narcotics to addicts

 

 

 

18th Amendment to prohibit alcohol is ratified

 

 

 

1920 The Rockefeller Institute's Bureau of Social Hygiene established a Committee on Drug Addiction to study and publish reports on addiction

Alcohol Prohibition

 

 

E.J. Pellini, assistant city chemist of New York, rebutted Gioffredi's and Valenti's claims and stated that addiction and withdrawal had no organic basis and that those phenomena were "functional" or "psychological"

Addiction Perceived as Psychological

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×

 

1921 Narcotics Division established within the Prohibition Unit of the Treasury Department

 

The Bureau of Social Hygiene gave $186,500 to the National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Drug Addiction

1929 Bureau of Social Hygiene transferred its support of research to the NRC's standing Committee on Drug Addiction; the committee included medical school researchers and key governmental scientists and administrators, including the future head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, H.J. Anslinger

 

 

1930 President Hoover created the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, led by Harry Anslinger, precursor to the modern day drug czar, under the Treasury Department

 

 

1933 The 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition

Prohibition Repealed

$65,000 working budget for Lexington Narcotic Farm

1935 First narcotic farm opened in Lexington, Kentucky, under the Porter Act for addicts in Federal prisons

 

 

Alcoholics Anonymous established

Alcoholics Anonymous Established

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×

Event

Funding

Historical Time Line

Theme

 

$663,330 overall budget for U.S. Division of Mental Hygiene, overseeing drug treatment

1937 The U.S. Marihuana Tax Act (the federal government spelled marijuana with an "h" at this time) made the use and sale of marijuana without a tax stamp a federal offense

 

 

$103, 883 working fund for Lexington Narcotic Farm

1938 Second narcotic farm opened in Fort Worth, Texas

 

 

 

1938 Development of a quantitative symptom scale for the severity of the opioid withdrawal syndrome in individuals by Himmelsbach and colleagues at the Addiction Research Center in Lexington, Kentucky (one of their first quantitative studies was of CNS drug effects in human studies)

 

 

 

1939 Meperidine (Demerol®) synthesized as first nonopioid narcotic analgesic (initially thought to be free of morphine's narcotic-like activity)

 

 

 

1943 Methadone treatments for pain were administered to soldiers in Germany during World War II when opium supplies were interrupted

 

 

 

1947 NRC established the Committee on Drug Addiction and Narcotics as the successor to the Committee on Drug Addiction

 

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×

 

1948 The drug disulfiram (Antabuse®) was introduced into therapeutics for treating alcoholism

 

 

1949 National Institute of Mental Health was established as the successor to the Public Health Service's Division of Mental Hygiene

 

$12 million overall budget for mental health activities, including drug treatment, in Public Health Service

1954 American Medical Association declares alcoholism a disease

Alcoholism Defined as a Disease

 

1956 Congress enacted the Narcotic Control Act to increase penalties for the sale and possession of marijuana and heroin

 

 

1958 Synanon, begun in California, was the first therapeutic community

 

 

1958–1959 LSD was found to affect the brain's serotonin systems; stimulants were found to produce paranoid psychotic states

 

 

1961 Methadone maintenance developed from studies on a hospital ward in New York (Rockefeller University) by Drs. Vincent Dole and Marie Nyswander

 

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×

Event

Funding

Historical Time Line

Theme

 

 

1963 The U.S. Community Mental Health Centers Act provided the first federal assistance to local treatment of addiction under the rubric of mental illness

 

Psychedelics (LSD) appeared in the United States.

 

1964 U.S. Surgeon General declared that smoking cigarettes and other forms of tobacco was hazardous to health

 

 

 

1965 The term ''drug dependence," meaning the psychological or physical dependence on a drug, arising in a person following administration of that drug on a periodic or continuous basis, is adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO)

WHO Defined Drug Dependence

 

 

NRC Committee on Drug Addiction and Narcotics became the Committee on Problems of Drug Dependence; that name was changed later to College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD)

 

 

 

1965–1975 Modern modalities of treatment for drug addiction began to emerge and develop

 

 

$504,000 for the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act

1966 Congress passed the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act for the treatment and reorientation of drug addicts

 

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×

 

$4 million for narcotic research for the Public Health Service's Mental Health Projects

 

 

 

 

1970 U.S. Comprehensive Drug Abuse and Control Act consolidated drug laws and set penalties for trafficking according to each illegal drug's perceived harm

 

 

 

U.S. Comprehensive Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Prevention, Treatment, and Rehabilitation Act (Hughes Act) created the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

NIAAA Established

 

 

Congress passed the Drug Abuse Education Act

 

Ford Foundation Drug Abuse Survey was initiated to estimate the prevalence of drug use in the United States.

 

Ford Foundation initiated the "Drug Abuse Survey Project" to pinpoint more precisely what should be done to combat drug abuse

 

 

$6 million for narcotic addiction and drug abuse research allocated to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

1971 President Richard M. Nixon declared "war on drugs"

Establishment of the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse

"War on Drugs" Declared

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×

Event

Funding

Historical Time Line

Theme

 

$6 million for alcoholism research at NIMH

1971–1978 Ford Foundation established the Drug Abuse Council to fund policy studies related to substance abuse

 

 

 

1972 President's National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse recommended that laws against use of marijuana be relaxed

 

 

 

Congress passed the Drug Abuse Office and Treatment Act, which established the Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention (SAODAP) in the Executive Office of the President. SAODAP lasted until 1975, when it was incorporated into the new Department of Health, Education, and Welfare

 

War on Drugs began with the establishment of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 1973 and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in 1974.

 

1973 DEA was established to control supply and enforce regulation of controlled substances

DEA Established

 

 

Increased knowledge of the difficulty of maintaining smoking abstinence led to new views of relapse behavior First demonstration (using tritium-labeled opiates) of the presence of receptors for morphine-like drugs in brain tissue by three groups working independently; this discovery initiated the extensive use of radioligand binding to study receptors for many types of drugs and endogenous transmitters in the brain and spinal cord

 

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×

$22 million for drug abuse research to NIDA

1974 NIDA was established to give a national focus to the federal effort to increase knowledge of substance abuse; NIDA was supervised by the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration (ADAMHA)

NIDA Established

 

Congress enacted the Narcotic Addict Treatment Act, imposing federal control on the dispensing of methadone

 

$34 million for drug abuse research to NIMH

1975 Enkephalins discovered by Hughes and Kosterlitz

 

 

1976 Demonstration of the opioid drug-like actions of beta-endorphin, a peptide found in brain, pituitary gland, and peripheral blood

 

 

1977 CPDD becomes an independent organization

 

 

Schacter advocated a nicotine-addiction hypothesis based on studies demonstrating that when nicotine content was varied, heavy smokers adjusted their smoking rates to keep nicotine blood levels at a consistent level. He concluded that some internal control mechanism controlled smoking

Nicotine Addiction

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×

Event

Funding

Historical Time Line

Theme

Rise in cocaine use occurred during the 1980s

 

1978–1979 Development of the intracranial microdialysis technique led to direct studies on the dynamics of neurotransmitter release. This resulted in an increased understanding of the synaptic pharmacology of neurotransmitter systems and the neuropharmacological basis of normal and abnormal behavioral reactions

 

 

 

1978 Congress authorized law enforcement agencies to seize the assets of drug dealers, including money, real estate, and vehicles

 

 

 

Demonstration by Aghajanian of the important role of the locus coeruleus in the expression of withdrawal symptoms in opioid dependence

 

 

 

1979 Cloning by Japanese scientists of the genes for the three families of endogenous opioid peptides: proopiomelanocortin, proenkephalin, and prodynorphin

 

A plane crash on the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in 1981 led to drug testing of military personnel.

 

1981 Demonstration that behavioral reinforcement (reward) induced by heroin is dependent on dopamine release in the brain

 

 

 

Congress passed a block grant program to give states more control over drug abuse treatment and prevention services

 

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×

 

$28 million for research to NIDA

1982 Sequencing of gene for the nicotinic cholinergic receptor at the neuromuscular junction provided molecular basis for first cloned receptor

 

 

 

Smoking literature described self-titration, or self-limiting action, as a process involving a threshold or satiation point of dose intake that functioned to maintain nicotine at consistent levels that regulate consumption rates

 

 

 

1983 Measures taken to defer intravenous drug users from donating blood

 

Virus for AIDS identified in 1984.

 

1984 Crime Control Act increased federal mandatory minimum sentencing provisions for drug-related crime

 

 

 

Naltrexone (Trexan™) approved for treatment of heroin and narcotic addiction

 

Test for detecting HIV developed and licensed in 1985.

 

 

Crack Cocaine Appeared in the United States

Athletes Len Bias and Don Rodgers died from overdoses in 1986, awakening the country to the lethal implications of crack cocaine.

$1 million for NIDA training grants

1986 WHO established a three-step analgesic ladder to promote compassionate and rational use of opioid and other analgesics in treatment of cancer pain

 

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×

Event

Funding

Historical Time Line

Theme

 

$130 million for NIDA research

1988 U.S. Anti-Drug Abuse Act mandated the creation of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and stiffened penalties for drug possession

 

 

 

U.S. Surgeon General's report stated that cigarettes and other forms of tobacco are addicting

 

U.S. forces invaded Panama and capture Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega in 1989. He is sentenced and imprisoned for cocaine trafficking.

 

1989 Worldwide heroin production reached an all-time high

Heroin Use Increased

 

 

President George Bush appointed William J. Bennett as the first "drug czar" of the new Office of National Drug Control Policy

 

 

 

First Drug Court was established in Miami; also known as "Treatment Court," this was a criminal-justice-run program to treat addicted nonviolent offenders prior to trial

 

 

$194 million for NIDA research

1990 NIDA's Medications Development Division was established to develop new medications for the treatment of drug addiction

 

 

$4 million for NIAAA training grants and $118 million for research

1991 Supreme Court upheld a Michigan law imposing a mandatory life sentence without possibility of parole to anyone convicted of possessing more than 650 grams of cocaine

 

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×

$7 million for NIDA training grants and $230 million for research

1992 NIDA and NIAAA became part of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)

 

1992–1993 Mu, kappa, and delta receptors in the brain were cloned and sequenced, leading to a greater understanding of the pathogenesis of opioid addiction

 

1993 Supreme Court ruled that officials may not seize property acquired with the proceeds of illegal drug sales if the owner is unaware of the source of those funds

 

Society of Americans in Recovery (SOAR), the first modern consumer advocacy group, was established; it disbanded 2 years later due to management problems and difficulty enlisting support from "recently" recovered individuals

 

LAAM (Orlaam®) approved for treatment of narcotic addiction

 

1994 DHHS adopted and published AHCPR/WHO guidelines for use of analgesics in cancer pain, including chronic high-dose use of opioids

 

Naltrexone (ReVia™) approved for treatment of alcoholism

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×

Event

Funding

Historical Time Line

Theme

 

$9 million for NIDA training grants and $331 million for research grants

1995 FDA Commissioner David Kessler launched campaign to regulate nicotine use among adolescents

Regulation of Nicotine

 

$5 million for NIAAA training grants and $142 million for research grants

 

 

 

$11 million for NIDA training grants

1996 Nicotine chewing gum approved for over-the-counter sale; expanded public advertising of methods to reduce nicotine craving and dependence

 

SOURCES:

Bureau of Justice. 1992. A National Report: Drugs, Crime, and the Justice System. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Lowinson JH, Ruiz P, Millman RB, eds. 1992. Substance Abuse: A Comprehensive Textbook. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 1994. Preventing Tobacco Use Among Young People: A Report of the Surgeon General. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E." Institute of Medicine. 1997. Dispelling the Myths About Addiction: Strategies to Increase Understanding and Strengthen Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5802.
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Every year about half a million men, women, and children in the United States die from the effects of using nicotine, alcohol, and illegal drugs: one of every four American deaths. Yet research to solve this terrible problem is often perceived as less important than other types of biomedical investigation.

Focusing on four major classes of drugs with the greatest social and economic impact—nicotine, alcohol, opioids, and stimulants—Dispelling the Myths About Addiction examines what is known about addiction and what is needed to develop a talented cadre of investigators and to educate the public about addiction research. The committee explores these areas:

  • Economic costs of addiction.
  • What has been learned about addiction from research into basic neurobiology and the brain, psychosocial and behavioral factors, and epidemiology.
  • Education and training of researchers and the research infrastructure.
  • Public perceptions and their impact on public policy in this field.

This volume outlines the challenges and opportunities in addiction research today and makes recommendations to educators, treatment professionals, public and private institutions, and others for how to build support for addiction research and treatment.

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