New NIH regulations (1994) require inclusion of racial/ethnic minorities in all drug abuse research studies. Yet this has proved hard to do, for many reasons. Few mainstream researchers have succeeded in this area; the literature on these issues is very limited and contains many gaps. Goals and objectives of this project are to review and summarize the extant literature; interview key drug abuse researchers working on these issues; convene an advisory panel of knowledgeable researchers to advise/guide the work; selecting a specific African-American neighborhood in Washington, DC area as a prototype/pilot community site, field- test for cultural resonance what is learned from literature review, researcher interviews through key informant interviews and multiple focus group sessions with selected community building trust and rapport; identifying, recruiting, retaining minority subjects in drug abuse research studies, etc. Develop a prototype handbook to address these issues plus a prototype of an instructional system for the handbook contents, using state-of-the- art computer-based learning systems, software, and techniques.
