A. Thomas McLellan is a top researcher on addiction.
Treatment expert confirmed for a top drug post
The Senate yesterday confirmed University of Pennsylvania psychologist A. Thomas McLellan as deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
The vote, by unanimous consent, means that McLellan will be the No. 2 to Gil Kerlikowske, the former police chief of Seattle, who was confirmed this year as the office's director, better known as the drug czar.
McLellan, a leading researcher in addiction and treatment, will be charged with reducing the nation's demand for drugs.
Until his nomination by President Obama in April, McLellan, 60, was executive director of the Treatment Research Institute, a nonprofit he cofounded in Philadelphia 17 years ago to study and compare treatments and to translate scientific findings into clinical practice and public policy. - Don Sapatkin
