First multi-year cumulation covers six years: 1965-70.

The 1978 National Drug Abuse Conference held in Seattle marked the beginning of the second decade of these conferences and their predecessor National Methadone Conferences. They began as small conferences devoted to understanding the problems and promises in herent in methadone maintenance treatment of opiate-dependent pa tients. The first conference was held about a decade ago in New York City at the Rockefeller University. The attendees consisted of a small group of invited clinicians, administrators, and research workers. Over the years the conferences have increased in both breadth and depth of their coverage. On a national scale this conference alone considered the issues of alcoholism, opiate dependence, polydrug abuse, and all other forms of substance abuse. The thousands attending each of the conferences came from all walks of life within our field. Lawyers, physicians, and basic and applied research scientists met and interacted with counselors, administrators, government officials, ex-addicts, con trolled alcoholics, and others with serious interest in this field. Only at this conference was it possible to attend presentations con cerning the newest findings of a cellular, molecular, and chemical basis on one day and participate in discussions of problems of dis advantaged minorities, women, and clinicians on the next day. It was uniquely possible to meet with government officials and question them publicly, as well as in individual private conversations at this conference.

This book tells the inside story of government attempts to deal with the American alcohol problem from 1970 to 1980, the most important decade in the history of alcohol legislation since Prohibition, with the famous Hughes Act as its centerpiece. We meet the friends and supporters of Harold Hughes, the charismatic senator and former governor from Iowa, and Marty Mann, the beloved "first lady of Alcoholics Anonymous." The author, herself a major participant in these events, describes the struggles and triumphs of this small band of recovered alcoholics and their friends as they bared their souls before congressional hearings and succeeded in convincing a Congress and three reluctant Presidents to support this effort. Nancy Olson offers us a unique behind-the-scenes view of the alcoholism legislation that changed America during the 1970s. Both those interested in alcoholism and those intrigued by the legislative process will find this book fascinating. Well-documented and clearly written, this book tells a story that has long needed telling. Ernest Kurtz, author of Not-God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous Written in an engaging style, the book includes vivid accounts of incidents and exchanges, with a cast list including members of Congress and their staffs, federal administrators, scientists, and representatives of the alcoholism movement and of the alcohol industries. The book is essential reading for anyone interested in the modern development of thinking and action about alcoholism and alcohol issues in the U.S. Robin Room, Professor and Director of the Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs, Stockholm University, Sweden