Mexico

Sixteen NIDA-supported researchers presented their research earlier this fall in New Orleans, Louisiana, at the National Hispanic Science Network (NHSN) International Conference. This year’s meeting focused on transdisciplinary approaches to current research agendas and the future of addiction research and treatment.

The United States and Mexico have issued a joint declaration (PDF, 43.8KB) of cooperation on drug demand reduction efforts that underscores a commitment to reduce illicit drug consumption and the need to work collaboratively with each other and additional partners in the region. The joint declaration was issued at the conclusion of the 8th U.S.–Mexico Bi-National Drug Demand Reduction Policy Meeting, which was held at the U.S.

The International Program frequently works with international organizations and drug abuse research institutions in other nations to promote collaborative research, exchange information, and to move rapidly to address emerging opportunities. Current and recent partners include:

Members of the NIDA International Program Inhalant Working Group have published a letter in the Canadian Journal of Public Health [103(6): 473] calling for increased qualitative and quantitative research on inhalant abuse. The letter cites recent findings that inhalants are often the first substance misused by young people, use among girls is increasing, and volatile substances are being marketed in parts of Mexico with the addition of appealing odorants, such as cinnamon or coconut.

The Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatria Ramón de la Fuente (NIP) of Mexico recently honored Viviana Horigian, Ph.D., University of Miami, and her research colleagues at the NIDA Clinical Trials Network (CTN) Florida Node Alliance (FNA). NIP Director María Elena Medina-Mora, Ph.D., presented the award April 16, 2013, during a ceremony celebrating the first randomized clinical trial completed through a recently formed Mexican network based on the CTN model, which teams substance abuse and mental health researchers with community treatment providers.

Mexico City hosted the Fourth Annual Meeting of the International Drug Abuse Research Society (IDARS) April 15–19, 2013. More than 100 specialists from 15 countries attended the conference, which focused on neuropharmacological, neurobehavioral, and neurochemical drug abuse research findings in 12 plenary symposia and 2 poster sessions. The NIDA International Program sponsored the symposium, “Research on Inhalant Misuse: From Epidemiology to Epigenetics,” chaired by former NIDA INVEST Fellow Silvia Cruz, Ph.D., Cinvestav, and NIDA grantee John J.

Former NIDA International Program Distinguished International Scientist Octavio Campollo, M.D., M.Sci., Ph.D., Mexico, and colleagues report in Drug and Alcohol Dependence that Mexico’s 2004 controls on ephedrine and pseudoephedrine changed the U.S. methamphetamine market. Restrictions on these precursor chemicals in Mexico resulted in widespread emergence of less potent methamphetamine and declines in prevalence and availability of the most potent type of the drug, which had dominated the U.S. market since the late 1980s. The authors found that U.S.

As the first U.S.–Mexico Drug Abuse Prevention Research Fellow, Argentina Servin, M.D., says she feels very responsible for learning everything possible during the fellowship and applying her knowledge in her home country. She works with commercial sex workers (CSWs), injection drug users (IDUs), and their children to break the cycle of drug use and sex-for-drugs that contributes to the HIV epidemic in northern Mexico. “Even my colleagues working in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez are astonished at the number of young people affected by CSW/IDU parents and environments,” Dr. Servin said.

A September 2012 international meeting in Mexico City that focused on inhalant abuse featured presentations by members of the NIDA International Program Inhalant Working Group (IWG) and has already begun yielding results. El Instituto para la Atención y Prevención de las Adicciones en la Ciudad de México (IAPA) hosted the meeting, which attracted more than 200 policymakers, researchers, service providers, and industry representatives. Former NIDA INVEST Fellow and IWG member Silvia Cruz, Ph.D., Cinvestav, chaired the scientific program. NIDA Acting Deputy Director David A.

A new fellowship program will enable talented Mexican postdoctoral scientists to devote 12 months to drug abuse prevention research in the United States.

NIDA and the Mexican National Institute of Psychiatry Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz (NIP), along with the Mexican National Commission Against Addictions (CONADIC) and the Society for Prevention Research, have established the United States–Mexico Drug Abuse Prevention Research Fellowship.