Reversing addiction to alcohol and drugs requires more than military advisors in Columbia, street police, death penalties, and mandatory sentences. It demands institutional as well as self-examination and a massive commitment to addiction research. The economic costs of America's addiction problem reach $300 billion in 1990, yet the Government invests only $500 million in all research on addiction. Congress needs to establish a National Institute of Addiction as part of the National Institutes of Health which would combine the research of the National Institutes of Drug Abuse and of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and conduct research on substance abuse and multiple addiction. Failure to confront addiction condemns America's most vulnerable citizens, particularly blacks and Hispanics, to a future without opportunity. 31 footnotes