mental and substance use disorders. joining us in our panel today are dr. h. wesley clark, director, center for substance abuse treatment, substance abuse and mental health services administrationu.s. department of health and human services, rockville, maryland; dr. thomas mclellan, director, center for substance abuse solutions, philadelphia, pennsylvania; dr. alexandre laudet, director, center for the study of addictions and recovery, national development and research institutes, incorporated, new york, new york; dr. candace peterson, associate scientist, evaluation shared service, university of wisconsin population health institute, madison, wisconsin. dr. clark, what does research to practice mean and what does it mean for a methodology or a practice to be evidence-based? research to practice is a concept that captures the evolvement in the research community with regard to various aspects of, in this case, substance abuse or mental health care in an effort to increase the ability to positively affect the individual who's affected by it. so, evidence-based, then, is mobilizing administrative, clinical, and research information to enhance the quality of care and the effectiv

let me cite a fiewvment a report by the substance abuse and mental health services administration found that between the number of emergency room visits due to energy drinks increased tenfold between 2005 and 2009, from 1,128 to 13,114 visits. more recently, a study of energy drinks by consumer reports found that some energy drinks contain high levels of caffeine, in some cases twice as much as a cup of coffee. the consumer reports study found that labels of many energy drinks fail to disclose -- completely fail to disclose how much caffeine is contained. and, even worse, five of the 16 drinks that consumer reports studied, in fact, contain more than 20% more caffeine than was stated on the label. these reports are profoundly and deeply troubling, and the agency in charge of regulating the safety of these products, the f.d.a., needs to determine whether energy drinks are safe and, if necessary, take action about their safety. senator durbin and i have written two letters -- one on september 11, the other on october 26 of this year -- calling on the agency to take action addressing the r