This presentation examines the scientific basis of alcohol treatment policies in terms of research on the effectiveness and costs of a wide range of treatment interventions.  The approaches with the greatest amount of supporting evidence are behavior therapy, group therapy, family treatment, motivational enhancement and some pharmacotherapies. Mutual help organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous are also effective as adjuncts to treatment.    It is concluded that treatment services have the potential to reduce population rates of alcohol-related problems, but this goal is unlikely to be realized unless treatment coverage is increased significantly. Ironically, universal measures like alcohol taxes and availability restrictions could reduce the need for treatment services at considerably less cost if properly implemented as part of a coordinated response to alcohol-related problems.