ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the origins and development of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) since its inception in 1970 and traces the forces that led to the movement of NIAAA as well as the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Mental Health from the US Public Health Service, and more specifically the Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Administration where it was located from 1973-1992, to its current placement under the National Institutes of Health. It illustrates how the change in organizational location and environment within the federal government also contributed to the crystallization of the agency’s ideology, goals and purpose that has had profound effects on the alcohol field in general, and on alcohol research specifically.
