Historical Perspective

The University of Miami CDRC represents the cumulative and collaborative efforts of more than three decades of research excellence.  Center-directed drug abuse research first began at the University of Miami in 1974 with an award by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of a psycho-social research center grant; this was one of the first center grants ever awarded by NIDA.  The Center for Theoretical and Empirical Studies on Drug Abuse, directed by Drs. Clyde McCoy and Duane McBride, was closely affiliated with the Dade County Comprehensive Drug Program (CDP), a jointly created County-University of Miami multi-modality community-wide treatment system with a capacity of 2500 clients.  Through such collaborative efforts and access to research populations, a federally funded center was established which provided the resources to establish an extensive research effort focusing on the etiology of drug use in a tri-ethnic community and an evaluation of how the community organized to meet the treatment needs of drug users. 

Building upon the NIDA Center grant, Drs. McCoy and McBride were joined by Drs. James Rivers, Dale D. Chitwood, and J. Bryan Page to continue the research program with projects focusing on the use of management information systems in drug treatment provision, the relationship between drug use and crime, the effect of depression on treatment retention, drug treatment services needs assessment and the role of ethnography in studying local drug using populations.

The mid 1980s and 1990s brought a major change in the Center with recognition of the worldwide epidemic of HIV/AIDS and its effect upon chronic drug users.  The CDRC became one of the first to launch comprehensive epidemiological studies and interventions among chronic drug users.  These programs were developed in concert and with funding from governmental agencies and private foundations.  In addition to involving the core faculty of the Center, other important collaborations were begun that enhanced the research productivity and quality of the Center.

In 1990, the name of the Center was changed to Comprehensive Drug Research Center with Dr. McCoy appointed as Director.  At about the same time, the University recognized the extent and quality of the research conducted by the CDRC by designating it as a Center of Excellence.  The Center also became part of the Clinical Trials Network with Dr. McCoy serving as Co-Principal Investigator.  Over the years, the CDRC has been strengthened by the recruitment and collaboration of new scientists who brought with them new methodologies and theoretical frameworks that have expanded drug research at CDRC. 

The new century brought a new set of researchers and research activities into the core of the Center faculty.  Dr. Lee Crandall became the deputy director of the CDRC and leads new research activities.  Dr. Howard Liddle, the Principal Investigator for the Center for Treatment Research on Adolescent Drug Abuse (CTRADA) training grant, became core faculty within the Center.  Another large research center integrally related to CDRC is the Drug Abuse and AIDS Research Center (DAARC) which is headed by Dr. McCoy. Both CTRADA and DAARC are funded by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).  In addition, grants and contracts to the Socio-Medical Sciences Research Group (SMSRG) (Dr. Lisa Metsch, PI) and the Treatment and Prevention Evaluation Group (Dr. Lee Crandall. PI) are integral to the research mission of the CDRC.  The CDRC also has close ties to the Center for Family Studies (CFS) headed by Dr. Jose Szapoznik in the Department of Psychiatry.