Alcoholism is the worst drug problem in the United States. Over 9 million Americans suffer from physical, psychological, or social difficulties caused by excessive drinking. Such people are unable to control their drinking and get into trouble of one kind or another—on the job, at home, on the highway—because of their drinking. In these ways, alcoholic people are a burden to themselves, their families, and society, adversely affecting the lives of tens of millions of their relatives and associates and draining the economy of $15 billions a year.

Less than 5% of alcoholic people and problem drinkers are public. Most alcoholics—75 % are men—live with their families in respectable neighborhoods, hold jobs, or are full-time homemakers. Alcoholics are represented in all income brackets, in all races, and in all religions. Alcohol plays a major role in half of the highways deaths in the United States; the proportion is even higher among youths aged 16 to 24.

In the U. S. only in recent years has alcoholism been recognized as an illness—not a moral or criminal offence—and as a major health problem demanding a national program of treatment and prevention. Before that, no such national program existed, and the battle against alcoholism was ineffective. Legislation forbidding the manufacture and sale of alcoholic drinks (Prohibition), campaigns aimed at shaming or scaring alcoholic people into sobriety, and scientific research that attempted to understand and break the chain of biochemical events that characterize alcohol addiction —these and other approaches all proved failures, leading many to throw up their hands and declare the battle hopeless. After the cancellation of Prohibition in 1933, each state was left to its own devices, and the following patchwork of local laws (a “dry” county here a “wet” county there) served only to reflect the conflicting attitudes of diverse groups toward the use of alcohol.

Fortunately, many determined persons continued the struggle. Forming a variety of activist groups, such as the Nation Council on Alcoholism and the Alcohol and Drug Problems Association, and working together with state and local agencies created to develop alcoholism program, they sought to gain recognition of the problem of alcoholism from the public, the health professions, and the government.