April 26, 2024
Dear Hossein,
Your last communication was most welcomed and reminded me to be grateful of how many years have transpired over the course of our communications. I am delighted that the Eid and Ramadan celebrations have gone well as has the annual tree planting ceremony. And I cannot imagine the care required to prepare each year’s exam questions.
Thank you for your response to my many questions. Your detailed responses help prepare me to accurately represent the philosophy and methods of Congress 60 and continue to be a source of learning for me.
The way you administer the DST method assures the highest level of accessibility and least disruption to the lives of Congress 60 members. Placing each member in control of their medication administration—that level of trust—conveys a very different message than that found in methadone maintenance programs in the United States and most other countries. What you have done is normalize the treatment of addiction by having medication managed the same way patients would manage medication for any other condition. And the ability with that to split dosing three times a day assures greater metabolic stabilization than the required once per day dosing in most other medication maintenance programs.
I’ve been thinking about a possible article on Congress 60 that provides an overview of the history and methods of Congress 60 (this section an update on our earlier articles) and presents a statistical profile of Congress 60 members. Would the data collected on members of Congress 60 at admission be available to construct such a profile? I think Dr. Galanter or another research scientist might be open to work with us on such an article for publication in one of the addiction journals. I think a co-authored article with you, American research scientists, and any others from Iran that would assist with the article would be welcomed by journal editors. Are there people in Congress 60 responsible for maintaining records that could assist in this effort? Are the records automated so that retrieval of profile information would be possible without records review and data entry? Is there an ethics panel you use to approve research conducted by Congress 60? If not, we could use the Chestnut Institutional Review Board to review and approve any planned study. I look forward to your thoughts on this.
Congratulations on your acceptance with Dr. Arvin to speak at the upcoming immunology conference. This week Bill Stuaffer, a colleague of mine, presented my remarks as part of the opening keynote address at the National Conference on Addiction Recovery Research sponsored by the Recovery Research Institute and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. I’ve attached my written remarks.
Let me know when the English subtitling of your speech is complete. Perhaps we can add that as a link along with your other writings on my website.
Please extend my warmest greetings to your family and to all members of Congress 60.
Friends and Brothers Forever