This is the ""Report to the Nation by the Cooperative Commission on the Study of Alcoholism"" sponsored on a grant from the National Mental Health Institute and being the collaborative effort of a number of physicians, scholars and laymen. Like many formal studies with a professional designations hard facts are hard come by, smothered by checkmating somes and others and eithers and ors. This lends to the ambivalence of such a consensus for the general public, accused of just that quality in its attitudes toward drinking and what is appropriate drinking behavior. The problem is multiplex in its causation, manifestation, potential treatment; surveyed are the current treatment services, drugs, and lack of medical care as covered by insurance or organizations. Research should be supported more widely; there are all kinds of reform measures suggested for the prevention of alcoholism and alteration of drinking habits.