Amity, Inc, in Tucson, Arizona, and Operation PAR in St. Petersburg, Florida, developed clinical laboratories for research demonstration programs in two TC's for drug abusers. Both programs proposed randomized clinical trials to determine the efficacy of permitting drug-abusing women to bring one or more of their children to live with them in a TC. Women were randomly assigned to the demonstration program with child care available or to the standard TC without child care. Eighteen months of residential care were projected for both treatment groups, and both Amity and Operation PAR had the staff depth needed to expand the TC program to meet the special needs of women. The two studies demonstrated the feasibility of clinical trials that randomly assigned participants to different treatment conditions within TC's, but not without complications. It was possible to develop clinical laboratories for research by establishing facilities and programs for mothers and their children within existing TC's. The overall experience suggests that the TC modality is likely to benefit from further use of the clinical trial methodology, especially to examine the efficacy of treatment innovations. Problems associated with the two studies are discussed that focus on randomization, service availability, and tensions between clinicians and researchers. 9 references