Problems of Drug Dependence 1996: Proceedings of the 58th annual scientific meeting.

From its inception in 1929 as a committee of the National Research Council of theNational Academy of Sciences, to the present time, notwithstanding the various namechanges which the organization has undergone, the CPDD has embraced the functions ofthe contemporary Drug Evaluation Committee (DEC). During the CPDD’s initial 54years, pharmacological, chemical, and clinical investigations of drugs of abuse wereconsidered essential programs; indeed, the “CPDD” was formed for those purposes. TheCPDD committee structure has been formalized over the last 20 years, and the DEC wasestablished to continue the research and drug testing work which distinguishes the CPDDfrom other scientific organizations. Recently, CPDD reestablished itself as a membershiporganization and its members will ultimately decide the fate of the relationship betweenDEC and CPDD in the 21st century. This history of the DEC was written to reacquaintthe members of the CPDD with the origins of this unusual committee, to inform themabout its current activities, and to relate what services the committee offers to them. DECmembers engage in methodological research and testing of drugs with analgesic,stimulant, depressant, and/or hallucinogenic actions, providing information relating to thephysical dependence potential and abuse liability of these drugs to the pharmaceuticalindustry, university researchers, and governmental organizations in the U.S. and abroad,and the WHO. For the membership of CPDD, as well as to researchers throughout theworld, DEC offers to determine the physical dependence potential and abuse liability ofyour interesting new or old analgesics, stimulants and/or depressants. This free publicse rv ice by the DEC se t s the CPDD apar t f rom a l l o the r sc ien t i f i c membersh iporganizations.