Missing a day of work due to a hangover is an alcohol problem. Accidents in which drinking is a factor are alcohol problems. Alcoholism is an alcohol problem. A substance that gives pleasure to most people also kills 100,000 Americans annually, causes serious injury, harms youth, destroys families and plays a significant role in violent crime. Some 20-40 percent of patients in large urban hospitals are there because their drinking has caused or contributed to the illness for which they were admitted. The estimated economic cost of alcohol problems in the U.S. was $185 billion in 1998, $683 each year for every man, woman and child.

Nearly one in five men and one in ten women who visit their primary care providers have problems with alcohol. According to a recent government survey, 6 percent of the adult population drinks heavily, meaning that they drank five or more drinks on the same occasion on at least five different days in the last 30 days.