Abstract When it comes to the topic of addiction Americans agree that it is a major epidemic. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of what can be done to prevent this epidemic from spreading. Whereas some Americans are convinced that prison is the best solution for drug and alcohol addicts, others maintain that prevention and treatment programs lower the recidivism rate for addicts, help countless addicts on their road to recovery and save the United States government millions of dollars spent every year on the criminal justice system. As disheartening as alcohol and addiction are what is even more concerning to Americans is the number of addicts that have been thrust into the prison system as a result of their addiction. The implementation of prevention and treatment programs for alcohol and drug users is essential to aid and assist the American population with this epidemic. Keywords: alcohol, drug use, incarceration, prevention, treatment Everywhere and Nowhere Drew Barrymore, Robert Downey Jr. and Billy Idol, when these three individuals are mentioned, one often smiles and freely associates words such as actor, rich, famous. When one mentions alcoholic, drug user and addict, a majority of society conjures up a negative image of a delinquent or deviant. What often goes unmentioned is the fact that all three individuals are addicts (Coalition Against Drug Abuse, 2014). The National Institute on Drug Use (2012) defines addiction as a “chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences” (n.p.). The effects of addiction are everywhere and nowhere. They are everywhere because the impact of addiction can be seen on the streets of every inner city in the United States an in the high rise suites of Wall Street where according to the United States Department of Health and Human Services alcohol and drug use costs Americans upwards of half a trillion dollars every year while accounting for more than one hundred thousand deaths (as cited in Volkow, 2010). The effects of addiction can also be seen nowhere due to the lack of access to prevention and treatment programs for alcoholics and drug users. According to the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services, only a tenth of Americans who needed treatment in 2012 received it, with approximately forty percent of these individuals not having adequate health insurance coverage or money to pay for the needed addiction treatment (SAMHSA, 2014). With close to two million individuals incarcerated in prisons in the United States for alcohol and drug use (Katel, 2011), the epidemic of addiction is also prevalent in the United States prison systems. Instead of investing in long-term solutions like prevention and treatment programs, the state and federal governments incarcerate alcoholics and addicts. This is an unsustainable short-term solution that will only lead to more problems in the future. The number of individuals imprisoned in the United States will continue to increase dramatically unless state and federal governments can establish effective prevention and treatment programs for nonviolent offenders that are governmentally funded. When it comes to the topic of addiction Americans agree that it is a major epidemic. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of what can be done to prevent this epidemic from spreading. Whereas some Americans are convinced that prison is the best solution for drug and alcohol addicts, others maintain that prevention and treatment programs lower the recidivism rate for addicts, help countless addicts on their road to recovery and save the United States government millions of dollars spent every year on the criminal justice system. Background: Alcohol and Drug Use Alcohol: The Lost Weekend Alcohol has played a vital role in the development of the United States. In the 1600s, the first businesses that were set up on the frontier were taverns, which gave trappers and fur traders a place to conduct their business. At the time, drunkenness “was not seen as a problem, but as sign of weak character” (Powell & McDade, 2003, n.p.). The consumption of alcohol found its way into the lives of colonial Americans, and after the American Revolution, alcohol had a hand in the founding of modern democracy. It was in local taverns that founding fathers, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, debated the concepts of freedom and did much of the actual writing of the first United States Constitution. Alcohol even influenced voting. President George Washington often bought votes by providing liquor in front of the polling stations (Powell & McDade, 2003). A temperance, or abstinence, movement emerged in the early 1800s with “so-called asylums specializing in the medical treatment of ‘inebriety’ [drunkenness]” (Friedman, 2014, p