Commentary: Fifty years exploring pharmacology with Sam Enna.

The passing of Sam Enna in June of 2023 is major loss to the world of pharmacology. While best known for his extensive research activities in the area of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) pharmacology, Sam devoted much of his professional time to teaching and as an Editor in Chief for the legacy journals - the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (JPET - 1998-2003); Pharmacology & Therapeutics (P & T - 2003-2023) and Biochemical Pharmacology (BCP -2003-2023) - increasing the volume of submissions for all three journals and their Impact Factors while decreasing the time for peer review and publication. Sam was a well-respected consultant in the CNS area for the biopharmaceutical industry and served as Secretary General and President of the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR) where his efforts were focused on sustaining research integrity, particularly in the areas of data reproducibility and fraud. This Commentary provides a personal overview of Sam's 50-year career in pharmacology and briefly updates topics that were of interest to Sam including: developments on the continuing reproducibility crisis where systematic fraud continues to proliferate now reaching industrial scale proportions, aided and abetted by paper mills, AI and the erosion of meritocratic norms; and the fall and rise of CNS drug discovery.