Workshops are Planned for Journalists on Latest Addiction Science

February 13, 2001

Journalists who cover drug-related issues on any beat - including business, crime and the courts, sports, entertainment and education, as well as medicine and science - are invited to participate in this year''s workshops in the Addiction Studies Program for Journalists.

The program, co-sponsored by Wake Forest University School of Medicine and National Families in Action, will offer three two-day workshops in 2001 to give reporters and editors the latest information about the science of addiction to alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs.

The workshops will give journalists an extra edge by supplying them with new approaches to reporting about problems of drug abuse, in addition to a new world of contacts on the subject of addiction science.

Three different workshops are planned, for reporters with different interests and experience:

  • March 9-10 and Sept. 14-15, at WFU School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, N.C., for non-medical and -science reporters who write about alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs on a variety of beats.
  • June 15-16, prior to the annual meeting of the College for Problems of Drug Dependence, Scottsdale, Ariz., for reporters who cover science, medicine or health on a regular basis and would like to build on their knowledge of the science of drug addition. Participating journalists are invited to stay for the first two days of the CPDD meeting. CPDD is offering some scholarships to cover these extra expenses.

Scholarships for the Addiction Studies Program workshops are available (for conference fee, lodging and transportation expenses) for journalists who otherwise cannot afford to attend.

The workshops offer a nationally renowned faculty -- from Wake Forest, Columbia, and Duke universities, as well as other major research centers -- who will provide journalists with the latest scientific information about the ways that drugs of abuse exert their effects on the brain, change the brain, change behavior, and produce addiction.

For more information and to register, visit the website: www.addictionstudies.org.

Enrollment is limited for all workshops, so interested journalists should respond soon.

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Contact: Mark Wright, (336) 716-3382, or David Friedman, Ph.D., Program Director, (336) 716-8525

Media Relations