At the March 9, 1997 Business Meeting in San Diego, Dr. Alan Robison raised an issue from the floor. He suggested that the Society endorse a resolution referred to as the Resolution for a Federal Commission on Drug Policy (sometimes called the Hoover Resolution because it was developed at The Hoover Institution). 

No formal action could be taken because the Business Meeting lacked a quorum. The members of the Society present at the Business Meeting agreed that the resolution would be presented to the membership at large through a mail ballot. 

The result of the mail ballot sent to the members of ASPET in August, 1997, was endorsement of the Hoover Resolution. 

ASPET Official Statement on Endorsement of the Formation of a Commission to Review Current Drug Laws

ASPET is the premier scientific society for pharmacologists in the United States. Pharmacology is the science that explores the mechanisms by which drugs produce their effects on the human body. Pharmacologists are involved in the discovery of new drugs and drug therapy. The Society’s 4,500 members are involved in basic and clinical research, teaching, and administration throughout the United States.

Pharmacologists are found in schools of medicine, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, and nursing; in private and government research laboratories; and in a wide variety of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Our teaching efforts are a vital part of the formal education for the health care practitioners of the future; our research efforts are crucial to the development of new medicines to fight old and new diseases and to improve human health. 

At its recent annual meeting, the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) discussed the issues of drug policy and pharmacological misinformation. A broad range of issues surfaced at the meeting regarding drug abuse prevention, as well as the medical and societal impacts of drug abuse and addiction. ASPET members were asked to endorse the Hoover Resolution, which calls for policymakers to address the overall issues surrounding the U.S. drug policy by establishing an objective, bi-partisan commission of drug and drug policy experts. ASPET supports a forum for discussion, which examines the issues surrounding controlled substances and the impact of the current U.S. drug policy on medicine and public health in the United States. ASPET supports the Commission’s charge to review the current U.S. drug policy as outlined in the Resolution for a Federal Commission on Drug Policy, also known as the Hoover Resolution.