Evening Meet & Greet
• Nice to have opportunity to meet others and have the potential to dine with others prior to the program officially starting.

Opening Session
• Good concise overview.
• Nice and to the point.

The Biology of Addiction and Public Policy
David Friedman
• Wonderful information delivered in a clear way that was as understandable to a legislator as it was for a clinician.
• Terrific talk with great slides. Especially appreciated the scientific perspective.
• Good perspective on core foundation as addiction as a health-care issue. Enjoyed the discussion very much treated as a primary disease.

Treating the Chronic Disease of Addiction
Adam Brooks
• Again, I wish we could have spent more time on this excellent information and presentation.
• Excellent! Would have liked to have had more time for him.
• Dr. Brooks did a great job giving us the ideas of how treatment can change.

Thursday Morning Discussion
• Great discussion!
• Given we only had two presentations it was difficult to focus on our task. Karmen did a great job trying to keep track of a very dynamic conversation!
• Both Bonnie and Sue were very helpful in keeping the dialogue moving—Sue also provided Nevada with a great example/model to explore from Georgia.

Changes in Design, Service Delivery, and Payment in Substance Abuse Treatment System
Jack Kemp
• Very thorough and excellent model. In many ways all of this information would be good for all state legislators and citizens to have and understand.
• Comparison to health care community was very helpful, beneficial for considering how to move forward.
• Content great!

Adaptive Interventions for Substance Abusing Offenders, David Festinger
• Very thorough and great perspective with individual new approach. Case by case and assessment then referral to appropriate treatment and services.
• Filled with pearls! Thanks!!! Age out/graying out of criminogenic risk?
• Concise and great delivery of information.

Thursday Afternoon Discussion
• Another excellent discussion! Established 2 goals!
• Very practical guidance and approach to coming away with the beginnings of a plan, sensitive to local state politics and infrastructure.
• Mr. Kemp was good at keeping the group focused on the fact that this conference was more about health care and not just ex-offenders.

Dinner Speech: Use of New Technology in Addiction Treatment
David Gustafson
• Mind blowing and so exciting and want more and to be able to help disseminate.
• Excellent topic—it is an area that is developing quickly. I wish there was a website or newsletter that would keep me updated on new technologies.
• Very good—exciting things to come in technology.
• Need to repeat this often.

The Science of Effective Prevention
Sue Rusche
• Very helpful information on U.S. vs. Europe in regards to drinking age was nice to see. All of her information was useful and I plan on using it in Maine.
• Prevention focus -- good to hear about the questions we should be asking -- questions to design more effective prevention programs.
• It was very good. Informative, especially about children and cigarettes.

Effective Community Prevention
Harold Holder
• Liked walking through the process that individual communities went through to set up model then implement and monitor program.
• “Community system” concept was beneficial to understanding providing a more wholistic approach to S/A problem, vs. targeted issues/populations.
• Informative—great tools that can be put to good use!

Effective School-Based Prevention
Jeanne Poduska
• Great to see how something so simple can produce such promising results. It would be interesting to see more studies like this. The intersection between early childhood, etc., level and addiction is important. Catch it early and success is far more prevalent.
• Seems like a great program with amazing outcomes!
• Very good school information that my state can try to use to help our children. Especially in the user areas.

Friday Morning Discussion
• A good job of bringing the team together.
• Helped define issues in a manageable framework.
• The preventative initiatives were very helpful.

Addiction Treatment from the Treatment Providers’ Perspective
Becky Vaughn
• Very good—thoughtful with a great deal of info. Business world is important.
• Coordinated info, medical disease model.
• Presentation, additional resources provided were extremely helpful.

Treatment Provider: Arapahoe House
Art Schut
• Hit the nail on the head!
• Great to learn that data is out there. We need to evaluate it and be sure to use it.
• Very timely for a presentation like this. Very helpful.

Persons in Recovery and Peers in Addiction Treatment, Pat Taylor
• Great point of view. Loved learning about the recovery network.
• Passionate and knowledgeable speaker.
• Very sincere interesting advocacy issues, interested in managing stigma.

Friday Afternoon Discussion
• Great job with facilitating the group.
• Great discussion.
• Good point to bring together our thoughts.

Develop “Next Step” Plans
• We pulled it together! Extremely helpful/productive process.
• All states worked hard and deserved credit for coming to the conference and actually working for improvement.

Indiana’s Plan
• Solid plan.
• Listed take aways and goals. Clear goals with realistic dates.
• To be completed by Indiana spokesperson. I like the process of plan development.

Maine’s Plan
• Once the right presentation was found! Grace underpressure.
• Identified good plan for their state.
• I’m partial to my team!

Nevada’s Plan
• Good info for all of their info.
• Another good plan.
• Simple, manageable.

New Jersey’s Plan
• Very thorough and thoughtful next steps.
• Knowledgeable, thorough and well-thought-out/ attainable goals.
• Good overview of what they got out of the conference.

To what extent did the program help you meet your overall expectations?
• Most productive and informative workshop attended for the last decade. Thank you!
• I learned so much! I really was able to get a grip on the science of addiction from different, but unified, points of view.
• The presenters were an all-star team of addiction information!
• This conference far surpassed my expectations!
• Outstanding—the state plans that were developed here make it clear that this conference was successful. Thank you!
• The entire program was great—the speakers gave me information that forced me to think outside the box. The state of NJ will definitely benefit from this seminar. I thank you for the invite.

To what extent will the program help your state develop priorities and execute results-oriented responses to public policy issues surrounding addiction?
• Very good info for our state to move things forward. Bring everyone to the same page.
• Provided opportunity to develop plan for some steps in moving forward with shifting perception. Identified need to collaborate with stakeholders and educate so we can gather support for public policy change.
• There were issues brought up that I never thought of, most of all – we need to work together with legislators, nonprofits, and government agencies to achieve the goal.

In the next six months, do you plan to visit the Addiction Studies Program website? What would be most helpful to you regarding policy issues?
• Other state examples. Research info.
• Probably every week! I will use it for data to support.
• Some comparison of systems in states across the country, examples of best practices.

To what extent did the material in the program change the way you view addiction?
• The concept of free will was interesting. You have a choice to go down the path of addiction, however, you don’t have a choice of how your body reacts.
• Some areas changed my views—many areas strengthened views I already had.
• It really brought home the fact that addiction is really a chronic disease and that recovery is possible.

How would you rate the overall quality of the program?
• Would like to have all of this presented in Maine at the House and Senate as well as the public.
• This was an excellent program with much cutting-edge information. I would suggest that since legislators and administrators change over time in our state that follow-up programs be offered.
• It was well organized and the information presented built on others, making integration/ understanding the information easier.

What aspects of the program did you like most?
• Faculty were outstanding and having them so accessible was helpful. Small number in attendance was helpful too.
• Distilling information into 3 goals.
• Getting to know the legislative leaders.
• Breakout sessions to assist in developing state action plan; info on technology; conference format provided ample opportunity to speak with participants and speakers on an informal basis.
• Discussions/interactions/planning exchange between legislators and executive branch staff.

Faculty and Staff

Sponsoring Faculty

Wake Forest School of Medicine
David Friedman, PhD
Director, Addiction Studies Program
Professor, Wake Forest School of Medicine
Department of Physiology and Pharmacology

National Families in Action
Sue Rusche
Co-Director
Addiction Studies Program
President and CEO
National Families in Action
Atlanta, Georgia

Treatment Research Institute
Bonnie Catone
Partner, Addiction Studies Program
Director of Communications
Treatment Research Institute
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Jack Kemp, MS
Partner, Addiction Studies Program
Senior Policy Associate
Treatment Research Institute
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

National Conference of State Legislatures
Karmen Hanson
Partner, Addiction Studies Program
Program Manager, Health Program
National Conference of State Legislatures
Washington DC

Additional Faculty

Adam Brooks
Senior Scientist
Treatment Research Institute
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

David S. Festinger, PhD
Senior Scientist
Treatment Research Institute
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

David Gustafson, PhD
Director, NIATx National Program Office
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, Wisconsin

Harold Holder, PhD
Senior Research Scientist and Former Director
Prevention Research Center
Berkeley, California

Jeanne Poduska, ScD
Managing Scientist
American Institutes for Research
Baltimore, Maryland
Arthur Schut, MA

Deputy Director and COO
Arapahoe House
Thornton, Colorado

Patricia Taylor
Executive Director
Faces and Voices of Recovery
Washington, DC

Becky Vaughn
Chief Executive Officer
State Associations of Addiction Services
Washington, DC

Staff
Eric Dickerson
Controller and Office Manager
National Families in Action
Atlanta, Georgia

Alise Garcia
Senior Staff Assistant
Health Program
Denver, Colorado

Robin Newsome
Administrative Assistant
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Department of Physiology and Pharmacology
Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Joanne Stroud
Research Analyst II
Health Program
National Conference of State Legislatures
Denver, Colorado

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Friday, May 11, 2012

Saturday, May12, 2012