Very nice series of comments, Hannie.
I didn't mean to sound jaded. I was taking addiction research from the civilian's perspective. It's not a mess, but it certainly can be a sticky wicket to navigate through for the uninitiated.
You filled in a lot of the blanks, and that's a good thing. I've got a collection of comments that amount to lectures from different areas of my expertise. That's not always what's needed, and not always what I want to convey. But you did a great job clarifying some of the issues involved in addiction research that I'm sure helped some people. And you actually answered the OP's question. NIDA is a great resource, but it's not for everyone.
All the research I've done on addictions has been enlightening for me, and has thrown in sharp relief the complexity of the problems in doing that kind of research as well as the problem itself. I did all this work while I was sober, and it was no accident that I chose this work. (Or is it the other way around?)
If you don't teach, and if you think you'd like to teach, I'm sure you'd be very good at it.