dr. cline, we're spending an estimated $484 billion in health care costs due to addiction. how many people are affected by this problem in our nation? this is a huge issue that permeates every sector of society. we know that there are approximately 22 million people across the united states who are struggling with substance abuse and dependence. that's about 9.1 percent of the population. it's huge. so the problem, one would say, is really widespread around the country, pat. well, as dr. cline pointed out, approximately 10 percent of the population has an abuse problem but it actually affects about 75 percent of our population. and so there is seldom a person that i meet that doesn't have some connection, whether with an immediate family person or somebody that they work with, some relationship of some type, that doesn't have a problem with addiction. congressman davis, in your district, how do these problems manifest themselves, specifically? well you know, i come from a small area and county

dr. cline was talking about, about the key role that the federal government can play in the leadership that congressman davis is talking about. samhsa and csat, through partners for recovery, have done a great job of getting information out to people, coordinating, getting ideas around the country, allowing people to share what's working in other places, and really be able to work together to get the word out that there really are a lot of effective things that can be done. one of the major goals of that has been to address the key problem, which congressman davis mentioned, which is that a lot of people still don't get that alcohol and drug dependence is a disease and an illness and one that can be effectively treated. despite the fact that it's more than a half-century since the american medical association said that addiction and alcoholism is a disease, and all the studies we have that show that treatment really is as effective for addiction and it's as effective for alcohol and drug proble