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Healthcare Reform Must Prioritize Treatment for Addictions, Mental Health, Report Says
Any effort to reform the U.S. healthcare system must make behavioral healthcare a priority, treat the "whole person" not just disease symptoms, and eliminate the stigma and system fragmentation that stand in the way of patients seeking treatment and preventative services, according to a consensus statement issued by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). 06/25/2009
NIH Panel to Consider NIDA/NIAAA Merger
A special panel at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has recommended a formal study on the possibility of merging the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) to form a National Institute on Addiction, but another putative merger -- between the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Health Resources and Services Administration -- has been dismissed as nothing more than a "rumor" by a SAMHSA official. 06/06/2009
Obama's First Drug Budget Fails to Shift Priorities
The chairman of a House oversight committee last week chided the Obama administration for failing to live up to its rhetoric about ending the war on drugs and taking a new approach to preventing drug use, challenging the composition of President Obama's first drug budget during new drug czar Gil Kerlikowske's first appearance as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). 05/29/2009
First Addiction Medicine Specialists Named
In a major milestone for the addiction field, the American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABAM) recently named the first group of board-certified addiction-medicine specialists, recognizing 1,240 doctors who previously had been certified by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). 05/15/2009
Obama's First Budget Supports Drug Courts, Eliminates Drug-Free Schools
The first budget plan submitted to Congress by President Barack Obama includes an overall increase in funding for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) but calls for elimination of the Department of Education's Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities (SDFS) state grants program as part of $17 billion in cuts to programs deemed wasteful or ineffective. 05/10/2009
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