McLellan Returns to TRI

Official portrait of United States Deputy Director of National Drug Policy A. Thomas McLellan. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Treatment Research Institute (TRI), a non-profit organization recently announced to the public that A. Thomas McLellan, PhD, will be returning as CEO. Dr. McLellan co-founded TRI in 1992 where he served as its Director until 2009. TRI works to develop and provide evidence-based solutions to substance abuse affecting: families, schools, businesses, courts, and health care. He departed from the organization to act as Senior Scientist and Deputy Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

McLellan was the co-author of the President’s National Drug Control Strategy and played a large role with integrating substance abuse prevention and treatment into the national health care reform legislation.

“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.”