Cognitive research on addiction in a changing policy landscape

Over the past 40 years, there have been remarkable changes on both the drug research and drug policy fronts. On a scientific level, we now have a reasonable understanding of many of the cognitive or decision-making impairments in people with addiction (e.g., impulsive choices, temporal discounting). On a policy level we have witnessed developments that many thought were inconceivable in a more punitive policy climate, such as supervised injecting centers and legalized cannabis markets. In this chapter, we examine whether and how advances in cognitive science and policy may affect each other in the area of drug addiction and use. Are advances in the cognitive science informing changes in drug policy? And how, in turn, are these policy changes affecting the type of cognitive research that can be undertaken? We argue that policymakers' use of addiction cognitive neuroscience is highly selective and often invoked post hoc to justify policies decided on other grounds. We suggest how we might increase the limited impact of cognitive research on policy. We also highlight novel avenues for cognitive research that can arise following policy changes