Problems of substance dependence produce dramatic costs to all societies in terms of lost productivity, transmission of infectious diseases, family and social disorder, crime and excessive utilization of health care. Few countries have a well developed public treatment system designed to address different substances of abuse. This paper addresses the issues of (1) whether the perceptions that treatment interventions are unable to cure addiction are true and (2) whether there is a role for addiction treatment in public policy aimed at reducing drug-related problems. This discussion paper is divided into four sections. The paper begins by considering the perspective of a government on public agency questioning the value of any intervention targeting drug problems, and what are society’s expectations for effective interventions. It examines the characteristics of patients who enter addiction treatments, thereby developing a set of outcome expectations to make treatment worth while. Part two of the paper addresses whether any type of addiction treatment can be effective and valuable to a society. In part three, a brief review is conducted on the substance abuse treatment research literature to identify patient and treatment process variables shown to be important in determining outcome from addiction rehabilitation efforts which aids in a discussion of what aspects of treatment are worthwhile to society. The final section of the paper addresses the question for policymakers as to why it appears that addiction treatment is not as potent or as effective as treatments for other disorders. In summation, the paper attempts to show that the reasonable expectations of a society regarding any form of intervention designed to “take care of the drug problem” must address many different issues.