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REMARKS BY:	DONNA E. SHALALA, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
PLACE:		NIDA's 25th  Anniversary , Washington, D.C.
DATE:		September 27, 1999 

You've helped make NIDA the world's leading braintrust on the causes and consequences of drug abuse. This is a remarkable legacy. Unmatched, except perhaps by NIDA's own 25 year legacy of combining rigorous science and human compassion to loosen the grip of drug addiction.

For those of us on the policy side, NIDA's research gives us the tools we need to make choices that best serve the American people.

That means: real facts and real answers - not opinion; not conjecture; not speculation; not myth. Just indisputable facts through science. Facts that ultimately save lives.

So, I'm very proud to join you today in recognizing 25 years of outstanding work.

This quarter-century milestone for NIDA comes at a very interesting time. Just this past week, we passed the 100-day mark until the new millennium. As the countdown begins we're looking back, and taking stock, of the events and advances that have changed the face of the 20th century.

One indelible change has been the tremendous gains in science and technology. Science has moved ahead in the 20th century with the force and speed of the Space Shuttle, Columbia.

And as I mentioned - for the science of addiction - no research institute has accomplished more than the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Your twenty-five years of insights and successes are too numerous to catalogue. But I will mention three.

You've helped clarify how and where drugs work in the brain to cause their addictive effects. You've provided complex models to explain drug-taking behavior to improve treatment and rehabilitation strategies. And you've produced ground-breaking work on nicotine addiction - work that has led to the development of more accessible and cost effective treatments such as nicotine gum and skin patches.

These are what I call the critical discoveries of science. As important as they are, they don't do justice to the deeper nature of your work. Their deeper nature - which you've been searching for - is the human element.

You've helped us understand who we are and why we do what we do. Think of this as science brought to Shakespeare, unraveling the biomedical and behavioral mysteries of the human mind. What makes a professional, perhaps a lawyer or a doctor, risk years of education and preparation and a bright career to throw it all away for cocaine?

What makes a gifted professional athlete -- making a million dollars a week -- put it all at risk for a momentary fix of heroin?

Both tough questions. But, that hasn't stopped you. Thanks to your bold and brilliant work, we are beginning to more clearly understand the lure of illicit drugs .and how they seduce human beings into risking harm to their bodies, to the health and welfare of others, to the fabric of their relationships, and to their very lives.

So, through your work, we've fit together some important pieces to the complex puzzle of human behavior - and how that behavior can be changed through research, prevention and treatment.

The dream of ending the plague of addiction is within reach -- but not yet in hand. We still have a lot of work ahead of us. This Administration is realistic about the difficulties that lie ahead in the fight against illicit drugs, underage drinking and underage smoking.

But being realistic about where we are is not the same as being resigned about how far we can go in changing attitudes. We certainly need consistent, hard-hitting, pull-no-punches messages - combined with caring parents and strong community partnerships that emphasize this: Prevention can make a difference.

But if we are to win this fight - and let me be clear: we will win this fight -- we must have strong, reliable, scientific research driving our strategies. And that's exactly what NIDA does - and will continue to do as we enter the next century.

John Dewey, an American philosopher who passionately wrote about education once said: "Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination."

Don't lose that audacity, NIDA. I am proud of your past, honored to be a part of your present, and excited about our future.a future that will help millions of Americans transform the myths of addiction into facts that will draw families closer and make our communities safer.

Thank you.