DRUG ABUSE INSTITUTE PICKS U. EXPERT AS DIRECTOR

A University of Utah professor and leading expert on psychostimulants is
now the acting director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Glen Hanson has spent more than two decades as a researcher at the U.'s
department of pharmacology and toxicology. After his appointment this week
to oversee NIDA, Hanson says he will spend much of his time at the
institute's Maryland headquarters and return to Salt Lake City to conduct
occasional research.

"The work I'll be doing for NIDA requires me to be here 90 percent of the
time," Hanson said during a telephone interview from Maryland. The drug
abuse agency, one of the National Institutes of Health, supports more than
85 percent of the world's research on brain and body changes resulting from
drug use and addiction, he says.

Utah colleagues say tens of thousands of U. students will remember Hanson
for teaching the "common medicines" course since 1981, which draws
nonmedical students looking to fulfill general coursework requirements.

"Basically you've got every one ranging from pre-med to art majors to
history students," says Annette Fleckenstein, a friend of Hanson's and
assistant professor who now teaches the U. medicines course.

"He really developed it and it teaches people to be better [drug]
consumers," Fleckenstein says.

After earning degrees from Brigham Young University, the University of
California at Los Angeles and the University of Utah, Hanson joined the
U.'s school of medicine and is now a faculty member for the Neuroscience
Program.

He has spent the past several years leading research on the neurotoxic
properties of the drug Ecstasy and amphetamines and is a frequent reviewer
for pharmacology and neuroscience journals.

"As a researcher, he has been supported by grants from NIDA and the
National Institute of Mental Health since the early 1980s and in 1998
received a Senior Scientist Award," said a NIDA statement on Hanson's
appointment.

The announcement comes after NIDA director Alan Leshner said he would step
down to become the chief executive officer of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science.