The Treatment Research Institute (TRI) announced that A. Thomas McLellan, PhD, has returned to continue his leadership role as CEO of the nonprofit organization. Dr. McLellan co-founded TRI in 1992. He served as its Director until 2009, when he left to become Senior Scientist and Deputy Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
He co-authored the President’s National Drug Control Strategy, and helped to integrate substance abuse prevention and treatment into the national health care reform legislation.
TRI is dedicated to developing and providing evidence-based solutions to substance abuse affecting families, schools, businesses, courts and health care.
“The size and severity of the substance abuse problem (60 million ‘harmful using’ adults; over 23 million addicted to drugs or alcohol) has made the public skeptical and cynical,” Dr. McLellan said in a news release. “Many think that substance abuse problems are inevitable and intractable. That is simply wrong. Research has produced incredible advances in this field, but those advances have not yet been available to the public. This is TRI’s special mission and the time for it is now.”