Recap of the 2004 Meeting

The Sixty-Sixth Annual Scientific Meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence took place June 12-17, 2004, in San Juan, Puerto Rico at the Caribe Hilton Hotel. It was our largest attendance to date, with 1375 registrants, an increase of almost 100 over 2003. Of these, 228 registrants were from outside the United States, representing 46 other countries or territories. The largest delegation was from the United Kingdom (26), followed by France (25), Australia (24), Sweden (15), Canada, Japan, and Spain (each with 14), Russia (9), Korea (8), Germany and Mexico (7 each), and 6 from Norway.  The others had 1-5 representatives apiece. The number of abstracts submitted and presented by the 1302 scientific registrants was also the most ever—850 made it into the final program. We had 18 symposia (10 full; 8 mini), 28 oral communication sessions, 4 poster sessions and 13 workshops. In addition, there were 12 short presentations in the ever-popular speed-data-ing session, Late-Breaking Research News. Symposia topics included aging and substance abuse, sigma receptors, transdisciplinary research on tobacco dependence, drugs of abuse and HIV expression, drug abuse and suicidal behavior.

CPDD 2004 began with an opening reception on the beach of the Caribe Hilton.  Unlike in 2000, when a sudden downpour during dinner forced us to seek shelter and dessert indoors, this time the weather cooperated to make it a lovely evening. (photos 1-7) Sunday morning’s plenary session began with a welcome by President Chris-Ellyn Johanson followed by a report from NIDA by Director Nora Volkow. The presentation of awards began with the Media Award to Peter Reuter, followed by the J. Michael Morrison Award to Ronald Brady. This year’s Joseph Cochin Young Investigator Award went to Sandra Comer (8) and the Mentorship Award to E. Eddie Leong Way (9). James Woods (10) received the 2004 Nathan B. Eddy Award and gave a lecture entitled, “Monkeys, Michigan, Me, and Mu”. (Plenary Award.pdf) The President’s Lecture was presented by Kathleen Grant (11)of Wake Forest University. Her topic was Stress and Alcoholic Phenotype.

On Monday afternoon, the 3rd annual Marian W. Fischman Memorial Lecture (.pdf) was given by awardee Nancy K. Mello (12).  Monday was also the day of the Early Career Investigator Awards (.pdf) Luncheon. There were 28 recipients (out of 56 applicants) of NIDA Director’s Travel Awards and 37 NIDA-sponsored Women & Gender Junior Investigator Travel Awards (out of 55 applicants).  CSAT gave 30 (of 204 applicants) travel awards for treatment providers to attend the meeting. CPDD held a breakfast for the CSAT awardees on Sunday morning as an orientation to the Meeting. Congratulations to all the 2004 winners!

The four (Atkins- & South Beach-friendly) breakfast poster sessions held in the Expo Center across the street from the hotel were lively (thanks to lots of Puerto Rican coffee) and well attended (13-15). Also remarkably well attended (especially in view of the fact that lunch was not provided) was the very informative workshop on future funding of drug abuse research led by Bill Dewey and Ed Long on Wednesday. Later that afternoon, members of CPDD attended the Business Meeting, where plaques were presented to retiring officers and members of the Board.  Steve Holtzman was thanked for 5 years of service as Treasurer (16), and Scott Lukas for his 5 years as chair of the Program Committee (17). Ivy Carroll (18) and Peg Ensminger (19) completed terms as Board Members. Incoming President Warren Bickel presented a plaque to outgoing President Chris-Ellyn Johanson (20).  Committee reports included that of Rich Eisenberg (21), who brought the membership up to date on changes in the abstract submission process, Powerpoint presentations, and in the Web site. Finally, elections were held for representatives to the nominating committee. The Fellows chose Steve Holtzman and Linda Dykstra; Regular Members chose Kathleen Brady and Sandra Comer.

Wednesday evening’s dinner and dancing was held in the San Geronimo Ballroom. Buffet lines were outside; conga lines inside. The band was Arpeggio, the same group we enjoyed at our 2000 meeting. They did not disappoint and neither did the CPDD attendees who filled the dance floor as it grew in size once the tables were cleared. (22-33)

On Thursday, the annual Brunch with Champions was held. A number of students and junior investigators had the opportunity to discuss careers and science with more senior mentors.  This year’s Champions were Roger Spealman, Linda Dykstra, Chris-Ellyn Johanson, David Shurtleff, Roland Griffiths, and Warren Bickel. Other special activities for the younger attendees included a NIDA tutorial on Saturday afternoon, a grad student mixer on Sunday evening, the Training Grant mixer on Monday evening, workshops by NIDA staff on funding and career development Monday and Tuesday evenings, and the Grant-Writing workshop on Tuesday afternoon.

At the end of the sessions on Thursday afternoon, those who remained were treated to a very entertaining sweepstakes drawing hosted by the irrepressible Scott Lukas, outgoing chair of the Program Committee. A number of prizes were awarded, including many hotel comps, for present and future stays, an airline ticket, dues and meeting registration for next year, and an assortment of items of somewhat lesser value.  In this year’s variation of the sweepstakes, however, you needed to perform in order to qualify for one of the better prizes. Highlights were Linda Dykstra’s rendition of “I Did It My Way” (34), and subjection of Bob Schuster (35) to a sobriety test, Warren Bickel to the Heimlich maneuver, and George Woody to a "Lukasized" version of the Addiction Research Center Inventory (36). Thanks to all of the participants and congratulations to all the winners. (37-48)

There were several pre- and post-meeting satellite sessions, including the International Study Group Investigating Drugs as Reinforcers (ISGIDAR); the 9th Annual NIDA International Meeting on Building International Research on Drug Abuse: Progress through Collaboration; the 4th Annual Meeting of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment on From Science to Services: The Identification and Adoption of Effective Practices for Substance Abuse Treatment; Comparing the San Juan and New York City HIV/AIDS Epidemics among Puerto Rican Drug Users: Evidence of a Public Health Emergency in Puerto Rico; and the Society for Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Effectiveness (SASATE).

If you missed the 2004, plan now for 2005. We will be at the Wyndham Palace Resort & Spa in Orlando, Florida, just across the street from Downtown Disney, an entertainment complex of restaurants, nightclubs, movies and a permanent theater for Cirque du Soleil. There are complimentary shuttles to the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park. Needless to say it’s a great location for families, so think about bringing them along. The Wyndham is a very large hotel and should be able to accommodate all the attendees, but early registration is recommended. Check the Web for meeting information.