Federal substance-abuse agencies lumber toward a merger

The angst-ridden process of merging the two federal agencies that govern research and education on substance-abuse problems will drag on for another two years.

Officials at the National Institute on Drug Abuse said Sunday that the opening of a new agency that will take the place of both the NIDA and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, will likely occur in October 2013 instead of 2012.

The merger was discussed Sunday at a meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence. The recommendation to fold the two agencies together was made last year by an advisory committee to the National Institutes of Health. NIH Director Francis Collins has indicated he supports the proposal for the creation of a National Institute of Substance Use and Addiction Disorders, which would be under the NIH umbrella.

But the plan has been controversial. The delay apparently involved a desire to seek additional input about the merger from scientists, advocacy groups and others who may be affected. The proposal has shaken the staff at both institutes, said Marc J. Kaufman, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a researcher in nicotine addiction.

“People are awaiting the plan with bated breath and with some anxiety about how this will play out,” he said. “There are strong arguments for keeping it separate and strong arguments for merging it.”

Some researchers and staff have already left their jobs in anticipation of cuts once the merger occurs. But some collaboration between the two institutes is already underway.

“There will be a lot of integration before the merger takes place,” said David Shurtleff, acting deputy director of NIDA.

Among the issues that have to be tackled is how other NIH institutes might be affected by the new organization. Drug abuse and addiction are pertinent to several other areas of medicine, including pain control, HIV, liver disease and prenatal care and birth defects, experts noted. Even obesity is now discussed as a disease with possible addiction-related features, and NIDA has begun to fund studies on obesity.

Whether the new institute is aimed at better, more efficient science or cost-cutting is a major concern.

“Everyone is worried about the money,” said Susan Weiss, acting director of the Office of Science Policy and Communications at NIDA. “We have been assured it’s not going to result in less money.”

Return to Booster Shots blog.