Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse

On February 27, 1951, Texas Governor Allan Shivers appointed a Statewide Committee on Problems of Alcoholism, which he charged with making a study and submitting recommendations to deal with alcoholism as a disease.

As an outgrowth of this Statewide Committee, the Texas Committee on Alcoholism, Incorporated, was chartered on October 4, 1951 as a non-profit scientific, charitable and educational corporation; governed by a board of 26 directors, it was designed to help implement the plan requested by the Governor. Its first President, Joe C. Carrington, became the first chairman of the Texas Commission on Alcoholism in 1953, and several other members of the corporation became Commissioners.

In 1953, the 53rd Texas Legislature passed House Bill 559, which created the Texas Commission on Alcoholism (Texas Revised Civil Statutes, Article 5561c). The Commission was composed of six members, appointed by the Governor to serve six-year terms; one member was required to be a physician, and at least three members must have had personal experience as excessive users of alcohol. Their duties included carrying on a continuing study of the problems of alcoholism; promoting or conducting educational programs; establishing cooperative relationships with other state and local agencies, and with educational, medical, welfare, and law enforcement groups, both public and private; receiving and administering state and federal funds for alcoholism programs; certifying education programs for DWI offenders; and licensing alcoholism health care facilities.

Despite the clear goals outlined for the Commission, the legislature had appropriated no funds for its operation, and the office closed after 18 months. Funds for alcoholic treatment were appropriated in 1955, but only for the Board of Texas State Hospitals and Special Schools, which was to expend those funds with the advice of the Texas Commission on Alcoholism. In 1957 the first legislative appropriation for the Commission itself was passed; the first Annual Report of the Commission soon followed.

In 1971 the Governor designated the Texas Commission on Alcoholism as the state agency which would comply with the federal Comprehensive Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Prevention, Treatment, and Rehabilitation Act of 1970 (Public Law 91-616, supplemented in 1974 by Public Law 93-282). This resulted in the first State Plan for Prevention, Treatment and Control of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (1971). To implement the State Plan--subsequently revised several times--the Texas Commission on Alcoholism designated one agency in each of 24 state planning regions as Regional Alcoholism Authorities. Six regional offices coordinate this network of services. Also in response to Public Law 91-616, a 34- to 50-member State Alcoholism Advisory Council was created to serve as voluntary advisors to the Texas Commission on Alcoholism.

In 1985, the agency was renamed the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, with its scope of concerns appropriately broadened (Senate Bill 601, 69th Legislature, Regular Session). The number of Commissioners was raised to nine, and in addition to their previous duties they assumed the duties of the drug abuse programs of the Texas Department of Community Affairs. In 1991, a compulsive gambling program was added.

In 1995, the commission was placed under a State Conservatorship Board, which was required to report its recommendations to both houses of the Texas Legislature no later than November 1, 1996. (The Texas Government Code, Sections 2104.021-0.25, provides for conservatorship of state agencies when there is a need to ensure that the agency complies with state fiscal management policies. ) The existing Commission was abolished and recreated with six members rather than nine, serving two-year terms rather than six-year terms (six-year staggered terms were later reinstated). At least three of the commissioners appointed by the governor must have experience in business management, financial management, auditing, contract management, or the like. (Senate Bill 1428, 74th Texas Legislature, Regular Session, 1995.)

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the agency contained four divisions: Administration, Education and Training, Rehabilitation/Industrial Program, and Field Services. By 1987 the agency employed a staff of more than 65 persons, organized into five divisions: Administration, Program Services, Program Compliance, Fiscal/Administrative Services, and Grants Management and Computer Systems. As of 2003, the agency was staffed by 198 employees, organized into the following units: Executive Branch, Demand Reduction Group, Legal, Communications/Public Information, Finance and Administration Branch, Programs Branch, and Licensing and Enforcement Branch (with Fiscal Compliance Division, Program Compliance Division, Licensing and Certification Division, and Investigations Division).

House Bill 2292 (78th Legislature, Regular Session, 2003) merged twelve state health and human services agencies into five, officially abolishing the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse and creating the new Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). This legislation transfers into this new department all of the powers and duties of the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, the Texas Department of Health, and the Texas Health Care Information Council, plus mental health community services and state hospital programs operated by the Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation. The new Department of State Health Services will begin consolidated (i.e., integrated) operations in spring/summer 2004.

From the guide to the Records, 1951-2003, (Texas State Archives)