Drug abuse researchers gathered at a symposium in Sikkim, one of India’s smallest states, to tackle some of the region’s biggest health problems. Linda Cottler, Ph.D., M.P.H., a NIDA grantee, offered her expertise at the symposium in Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, to help begin to shed light on the magnitude of substance abuse in the state.
The symposium was conceived by Tekendra Rai, M.D., a NIDA Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow, who brought together Dr. Cottler, director of the Epidemiology and Prevention Research Group at the Washington University School of Medicine, and others to discuss health research methodologies and substance abuse prevention. The participants exchanged ideas on how best to obtain hard data that could help direct programs and interventions to deal effectively with the rising substance abuse and suicides among the people of Sikkim.