This year’s conference will once again be driven by collaboration and diversity—it will introduce the latest in methamphetamine research and innovative programming to a wide audience. We know success can be achieved and individuals and good leadership can make the difference in improving people’s lives—right now.

The beauty of this conference is it creates the confluence of many different approaches dealing with methamphetamine use. It brings together experts from prevention, treatment, public health, law enforcement, and government. It includes topics such as family impact, research, innovative service delivery, and rural and urban response. It brings together people from small and large communities working in the US, as well as the international community. By presenting the spectrum of response to methamphetamine use, we hope to learn from one another by drawing upon what is effective or promising and applying it to our work.

A regular set of rules, rigidly applied? A fixed prescription, one size fits all? Of course not.

We have seen too many times the consequences of approaches that fail to take into consideration the human and cultural dimensions of drug use and that compete for the time and attention of those whose job it is to deliver the goods. The landscape of drug response is littered with failed efforts that began with lofty goals but did not take into account the realities of what is needed to make things work.

In regard to research, prevention, treatment, policy, and criminal justice, we are like living organisms: complex, interconnected, and — if we are to grow and thrive — adaptive. Those are the issues at the heart of this year’s conference: Human resources. Information. New discoveries. Policies. Management. Political commitment. Innovation. Compassion.

All interlinking subsystems that affect one another and the ultimate outcome that is our common cause: human health.

— Luciano Colonna, Executive Director