Last week Castle Craig hosted the International Council on Alcohol and Addiction Annual Conference in Edinburgh at the Church of Scotland Assembly Hall on The Mound.  We were very privileged to have been chosen to take the lead and the event took two years of planning.  We formed a home committee of most of the leading agencies in the UK.  The conference was opened by myself and the President of ICAA Dr. Peter Vamos.  Also opening the proceedings was Dr. David Court, Convener of the Church of Scotland Social Work Committee and representing the Moderator and Cardinal Keith O’Brien Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh spoke about the 12 Step programme. 

I enclose my own contribution to the opening speeches.  The next day I introduced the Minister of Health, Andy Kerr, MSP, to the conference and he spoke of the Scottish Executives’ plans to tackle Scotland’s ghastly alcohol problem.  In all we had 28 plenary speakers and 70 subsection papers over four days.

At a banquet at the Mansfield Traquair on Tuesday the President of ICAA presented Castle Craig with a prestigious “Dr. Vincent Bakeman Memorial Award” in recognition of Castle Craig’s outstanding community services.