Introduction to CACTUS
The Conference on Approaches for Combating the Troublesome Use of Substances

The Conference on Approaches for Combating the Troublesome Use of Substances (CACTUS) convened October 11-13, 2004, funded by a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Innovators in Combating Substance Abuse award. The beginning premise of this think-tank meeting was:

Suppose we knew all that science has revealed regarding substance use, problems and dependence, but had no organized systems for addressing them. Imagine starting from scratch, to design creative ways to prevent, decrease, and treat substance use disorders. What if we were to set aside all current specialist systems, brand-name treatments, and existing programs, and start from the scientific knowledge base to develop social strategies for combating these problems?

The 16 invited speakers prepared papers in advance of the conference, which were distributed to the other participants including the invited speakers, as well as to representatives of the National Institutes of Health, and to faculty and students of the University of New Mexico whose primary interests were in addiction research.

At the conference, each speaker presented a brief summary of the advance paper. These presentations are reflected in the PowerPoint files found on this website. At six times during the 3-day conference, all participants were asked to brainstorm silently the implications of what they had heard for approaches to combating substance abuse. Consistent with the opening premise of the conference, participants were asked to set aside prior and brand-name approaches in their brainstorming, and instead enter the task with a beginner's mind. The sixth and final brainstorming period was longer (30 minutes) and offered a specific challenge of applying science-based knowledge to practical programs and policy. The collected and unedited contents of these brainstorming sessions are contained in the Word document that is downloadable from this page.

The final revised papers, along with introductory and summary chapters, are available in print: Miller, W. R., & Carroll, K. M. (Eds.) (2005). Rethinking substance abuse: What science shows and what we should do about it. New York: Guilford Press.

The 16 invited speakers and their topics were:

Warren Bickel	Complex, Robusts, Self-Organizing Biobehavioral Systems
Robert Carlson	Ethnography: Anthropological and Cross-Cultural Factors
Kathleen Carroll	Behavioral Therapies: The Glass Would Be Half Full If Only We Had a Glass
Anna Rose Childress	Human Neuroscience of Addiction
Carlo DiClemente	Natural Change and the Troublesome Use of Substances
Deborah Hasin	Genetics of Substance Use Disorders
Victor Hesselbrock	Developmental Perspectives on the Risk for Developing Substance Abuse Problems
Harold Holder	What is to be Made of Racial and Gender Differences in Substance Use and What Should Communities Do About It?
Keith Humphreys	How Can Religious and Spiritual Organizations Combat the Troublesome Use of Substances?
George Koob	The Neurobiology of Addiction: A Neuroadaptational View
Barbara McCrady	Family and Other Close Relationships
Thomas McLellan	What We Need Is a System: Toward Creating a Responsive and Effective Substance Abuse Treatment System
William Miller	Motivational Factors
Rudolf Moos	Social Context and Substance Use
Kim Mueser	Comorbid Substance Use and Psychiatric Disorders
Stephanie O'Malley	Pharmacotherapy of Addictive Behaviors

You may also download the Brainstorming Notes from CACTUS.    NOTE: You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your machine to view this file.


A picture of the CACTUS meeting is available for viewing.