Mr. Chairman, and your committee, are giving serious consideration to the legislation before you, which is absolutely crucial if we are to effect our mission.

Mr. Chairman, and members of the subcommittee, on behalf of Dr. Jaffe and the Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention, I want to thank you for this opportunity to brief the subcommittee on what transpired yesterday at a meeting called to explore ways of accelerating the research and development of new drugs for the treatment of opiate dependence. Dr. Jaffe has asked me to extend his regrets that he could not accept your kind invitation to appear in person this morning, Mr. Chairman, because he has an engagement at the White House.

Our meeting yesterday was called by Dr. Jaffe and our Special Action Office to review the state of the art concerning narcotic antagonists, drugs which optimally preclude the euphoric effects of opiates but which themselves would not be addicting. Several of these antagonists are currently being tested, but appear to have some undesirable side effects and are not sufficiently long lasting. To determine if and how the scientific genius of America could produce a long lasting and safe narcotic antagonist with minimal or no side effects, Dr. Jaffe called together leading researchers from the pharmaceutical industry, representatives from NIMH, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, and the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice.

Also present were staff members from your committee, Mr. Chairman, and staff members from the Select Committee on Crime. Dr. Jaffe is exceedingly appreciative for your leadership, Mr. Chairman, in helping us to reach our common goal.

The general consensus of that meeting was that the narcotic antagonists have a real and potentially major role to play in the treatment of narcotic addiction, but there have been, as you well know, several stumbling blocks to their perfection.

Perhaps the major problem areas have been the limited ability of government and industry to rapidly evaluate the efficacy of these compounds and test them on animals and huamns, and the availability of sufficient amounts of these compounds for such testing.

Dr. Jaffe feels confident that yesterday's meeting will result in, among other things, an accelerated approach and research program to produce, test and evaluate antagonists and other compounds which may be helpful in the treatment of drug dependent persons. All of the participants at the meeting have agreed to work with the Special Action Office to effect this common goal. In our capacity as the coordinating and policy-directing agency for drug abuse activity, we have taken it upon ourselves to coordinate all Government action in this field and serve as a conduit to private industry and the university community in the development of clinically useful antagonists. To follow up on the fruitful start made yesterday, we are convening small working groups to tackle specific problems. As a result of these working groups and the problems they will explore and the ideas they will propose, we will then make specific recommendaitons for action. Furthermore, we hope these working groups will surface any roadblocks or, to use your term, Mr. Chairman, blockages that stand in the way of the successful pursuit of our common goal. You may be

sure that the Special Action Office will act swiftly to remove any of these roadblocks as they surface.

The staff of the Special Action Office was extremely impressed with the spirit of cooperation evidenced by all the participants at yesterday's meeting and we believe that a fruitful government-industryuniversity effort will be the result. The exact form that this effort will take has not yet been determined, and will, to a large degree, depend on the findings and recommendations of the working groups.

Mr. Chairman, all of us, I believe, share a sense of excitement at the prospects of this accelerated research program to find the best narcotic antagonists. Mr. Chairman, on behalf of Dr. Jaffe and the Special Action Office, we look forward to working with you and the members of your committee and staff in your considerations and deliberations concerning the legislation which is pending before you. We know that you feel, as we do, that a coordinated effort is absolutely necessary if we are going to move this thing forward and move it forward now.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the subcommittee, for your consideration.

Mr. ROGERS. Thank you, Mr. Perito, for your statement. I am delighted to hear it. I knew the meeting was successful yesterday, and the industry was ready to pool their resources.

Mr. PERITO. Yes, sir.

Mr. ROGERS. It is my understanding, too, that you have had cooperation from the Department of Justice and Federal Trade.

Mr. PERITO. That is correct. Both FTC and Justice representatives attended the meeting yesterday, and at the present time, given the present patterns that have been discussed, their attitude was one of complete cooperation.

Obviously, as new approaches evolve, the position of those agencies is that they will explore those problem areas and get to them rapidly. I am sure, based upon what has transpired in the past few weeks, that their posture will continue to be one of complete cooperation.

Mr. ROGERS. Yes. This is good to see develop now, because John Mitchell, as you know we talked to John Mitchell, has assured cooperation of that Department, and you see this is being exhibited?

Mr. PERITO. It is, and it was manifested by representatives of the Department of Justice and FTC yesterday.

The Food and Drug Administration and National Institute of Mental Health have been cooperative participants in this venture all along.

Mr. ROGERS. I think we are at the beginning of trying to find some answer to the heroin problem. This committee will follow it closely. We expect to be kept advised by Dr. Jaffe of what is happening, and of blockage that does occur.

Mr. PERITO. Yes, Mr. Chairman. We will look to you for your cooperation and help if and when problems arise.

Mr. ROGERS You will get it. We are grateful to all of you for being here today. Are there any questions?

Thank you.

We appreciate the presence of all here today. I think this is really a historic step for the betterment of this Nation.

Thank you.

The committee stands adjourned.

(Whereupon, at 11:50 a.m., the Subcommittee on Public Health and Environment adjourned subject to call of the Chair.)

SPECIAL ACTION OFFICE FOR DRUG ABUSE

PREVENTION

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1971

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT,
INTERSTATE AND FOREIGN COMMERCE COMMITTEE,

Richmond, Va.

The subcommittee met at 9:30 a.m., pursuant to notice, in the auditorium of Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia campus, Hon. Paul G. Rogers (chairman) presiding.

Mr. ROGERS. The Subcommittee on Public Health and Environment of the U.S. House of Representatives will come to order, please.

First of all, I want to say how pleased and delighted we are to be here in Richmond and at the university to have the benefit of the advice of witnesses that we will hear this morning.

We are conducting hearings over the country and in Washington on what I think it is one of the Nation's most serious problems, drug

abuse.

We have 35 pieces of legislation that the committee must consider, including the President's proposal to set up a Special Action Office for Drug Abuse headed by Dr. Jaffe, and this committee hopes to write this legislation within the next few weeks.

These hearings will be most helpful to us in doing that.

We have come to Richmond at the invitation of your distinguished Congressman, and our good colleague who is the ranking member on this subcommittee, the Honorable David E. Satterfield.

It is a real pleasure to be here in his district, and the contribution he has made to this committee's work has been outstanding, so we are honored to be here today in your district.

We are pleased that the members of our subcommittee, not all of them could come, but I think we have a good representation in addition to Congressman Satterfield, Congressman Kyros of Maine to my left, Congressman Preyer of North Carolina, and Congressman Symington of Missouri.

Mr. Steve Lawton is the counsel to the subcommittee.

I think we will proceed, if you would like to say anything first. Mr. President, we are honored to be here on your campus, and we would be pleased to have any statement by you that you wish.

STATEMENT OF DR. WARREN W. BRANDT, PRESIDENT, VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY, RICHMOND, VA.

Dr. BRANDT. Thank you, Congressman Rogers, it is my privilege to welcome you and the members of the subcommittee this morning, particularly to Richmond.

If I may digress for a moment, I think you will find that Richmond is in a warm enthusiastic glow this morning from the appointment of one of their most respected and favorite sons, Mr. Lewis Powell to the Supreme Court.

I think you will find the city is quite excited about this particular development.

We are also delighted to have you at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The university was formed by the legislature in 1968 by combining two existing State institutions in Richmond, the Medical College of Virginia, on which campus you find yourself, and the Richmond Professional Institute with a campus about 2 miles west of here.

We are the largest institution of higher education in Virginia in terms of head count enrollment, primarily due to a very large evening college program which currently enrolls 4,800 out of our total of 14,800 head count enrollment.

We are the second largest in the State in terms of full-time equivalent enrollment.

On this campus we have a broad range health sciences center, which includes the school of medicine, with an entering class of 136.

We also have dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, a whole range of allied health professions, and some 11 Ph. D. programs in the health related sciences.

On the other campus, we cover the usual arts and sciences. We have the largest university-based school of the arts in the country, with a broad range of programs in the arts.

We have very active programs in business, community services, and education, plus a graduate school of social work. We were early into the drug problem as it developed around the country.

I think you will find that people on both campuses were very significantly involved in many of the early efforts to bring recognition to the drug problem as it developed, and to start educational efforts to begin to make headway toward counteracting that problem.

We have a number of short courses that are offered in the drug area to all types of groups.

We have some formal courses that are dealing with this problem. We have degree programs in occupational therapy rehabilitation counseling, and many others which are very actively interested in working with those that have this particular problem.

We have three speakers we would like to present to you this morning on behalf of the university. These three gentlemen come from this campus.

They have all been for some time now closely involved with drug problems, and we think the experiences they have had will be particularly beneficial to the committee.

The first one I would like to introduce will be Dr. George Bright, who comes to us educationally from Texas. Dr. Bright is head of our program of adolescent medicine, in our department of pediatrics in the school of medicine.

He has developed a very interesting and we think, outstanding program in working with problems in adolescent medicine, and in this day and age one of the key problems of course is the drug problem. He has been most effective in identifying with the teenage group,

particularly the middle class and upper middle class teenage group in the city of Richmond. They have come to him in the programs that he has developed. Some of the experimental programs he has been carrying out we think are quite distinctive, and we are pleased to have you hear him.

In addition to Dr. Bright, we have Dr. James Mathis, who is chairman of our department of psychiatry, for Congressman Symington's information, educated at the University of Missouri, and has his M.D. from St. Louis University.

Dr. Matthews came to us a year ago. He has an extensive experience in the psychiatric field, and a great deal of experience working with young people and working with the drug problem in particular.

Following him will be Mr. Harrison, who is director of the pharmacy services in the Virginia Commonwealth University Hospital. Educated at the University of Michigan and the University of Florida, he has been working very closely in a leadership role with the methadone program. I think he will have many significant comments to add to the other two gentlemen. Let me again welcome all of you, and we hope you have a delightful visit to Richmond and to the Virginia Commonwealth University. We are honored and pleased to have you here.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. ROGERS. Thank you very much, Dr. Brandt, for your very generous remarks, and the background of your university.

I think it might be well just to mention this committee has just completed legislation in a conference with the Senate, which is not always easy, to try to work things out, but we have been successful in completing the health manpower legislation and the Nurse Training Act, which probably will be, I think, the most significant supporting legislation for medical education in the history of this Nation, and I am sure that this university can benefit from it.

We hope we can fund it properly.

Dr. BRANDT. Mr. Chairman, we are certainly very cognizant of your efforts in that area, as well as the cancer area, and because of the close relevancy these have for the total programs as well as the specific programs in cancer, we are watching developments practically daily, and at any time we can be of assistance, please do not hesitate to call

on us.

Mr. ROGERS. Thank you.

Our first witness is Dr. George M. Bright, director of adolescent medicine at the Medical College of Virginia.

STATEMENT OF DR. GEORGE M. BRIGHT, DIRECTOR, ADOLESCENT MEDICINE, MEDICAL COLLEGE OF VIRGINIA, RICHMOND, VA.

Dr. BRIGHT. Thank you very much.

The Adolescent Clinic at the Medical College of Virginia is, at present, an outpatient facility, offering comprehensive medical-social services to young people between the ages of 12 and 21. The usual problems frequently encountered in the adolescent years are those of growth and development, drug abuse, school achievement, and interpersonal relations.