Methodology involved drawing computer samples from 1978 arrests for felony and misdemeanor drunk driving and for public inebriation. The findings indicated that in 1978, both crimes accounted for 42.7 percent of all felony misdemeanor arrests and 56.3 percent of all misdemeanor arrests. The city's arrest rate for public inebriation was double that for any of the nation's 55 largest cities. In addition, cirrhotic death rates and alcoholism prevalence estimates show that San Francisco has the highest incidence of alcohol abuse among the State's counties. In San Francisco, 88.9 percent of those arrested for felony drink driving are convicted, as are 95 percent of those arrested for misdemeanor drunk driving. Of those convicted for felony, 66.7 percent are sentenced to an average of 33 days in jail; 34.6 percent of the misdemeanor convictions result in average sentences of 7.4 days. About 74 percent of the system's cost for processing drunk drivers is returned to the city's general fund through court fines. Recommendations include decriminalizing public inebriation, increasing the State alcoholic beverage excise tax, and revising drunk driving statutes into three levels of criminal behavior, with increasingly severe sanctions for each level. Nine footnotes, charts, 31 tables, a 20-item reference list, and appendixes containing information on methodologies utilized are provided.