Drug-abuse research. White House stirs interest in brain-imaging initiative.

RE D IT S: (L EF T) P A U L BA TI ST A /M A SS G EN ER A L; (R IG H T) H .B RE IT ER /M A SS G EN ER A L BOSTON—Thanks to drug-war money, Massachusetts General Hospital just dedicated one of the most sophisticated magnetic resonance imaging machines around. With a whole-body magnet and a 460-ton steel shield, the multimillion-dollar device promises to give researchers new insight into the brain circuitry of drug craving and euphoria. The device is one of dozens of neuroimaging machines planned for labs across the country, all paid for by White House drug czar John Walters’s office. Their debut is creating a euphoria of its own among researchers. They are putting together a major initiative to use the machines in concert with advances in genetics and animal research to vault the field into the forefront of neuroscience— what Walters calls “a bold new model for drug-abuse research.” The idea for a brainimaging initiative—seen as a decade-long, $100-millionplus effort—is generating excitement among policymakers such as Walters, officials at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and academic researchers, many of whom gathered here last month at a White House– sponsored meeting on reducing drug demand. By gathering data from thousands of human subjects, they hope to understand the genetic and physiological underpinnings of drug abuse. But skeptics warn that the ambitious effort must be carefully designed, lest it produce reams of unusable data—and damage neuroimaging’s already mixed reputation. Researchers involved in the effort say that the technology is ready: “I’ll do everything I can to kick this off,” says Albert Brandenstein, chief scientist for the Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center (CTAC), which is part of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. “We want the best people in the world—and our carrot is the best equipment in the world.” The U.S. government is spending nearly $19 billion this year on treating and preventing drug abuse and interdicting illicit drugs; the vast majority goes for law enforcement. NIDA, part of the National Institutes of Health, has a $933 million budget, but that money pays for research, not infrastructure. So Bran-