No, it's not how it sounds.
Many Americans (and people from all over the world) are addicted to alcohol. While the main treatment option remains self will and desire to stop, there are new drugs coming to the forefront that have the promise of reducing a person's dependency on alcohol.
There are a range of drugs from ReVia -- which hasn't shown great strides because it must be taken daily, a hard choice for many alcoholics -- to Antabuse -- a harsh deterant that causes flushing, sweating, nausea and rapid heartbeat -- to Campral -- that can only be used once a person is full sober.
The interesting aspect of the drug therapy is the desire to greatly reduce the number of drinks consumed, opposed to the previous notion that an alcoholic must abstain completely from drinking. There's an unspoken acknowledgment among experts that while lifelong abstinence is the gold standard, reducing intake beats consistent hard drinking.
Drug therapy is not intended to replace groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, but used as a buffer to ease a person as they try to reduce their intake. Perhaps soon, alcoholism treatment will follow in the footsteps of depression treatment and become commonplace to prescribe drugs to help people cope.
info from: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/medtech/0,70682-0.html?tw=rss.index
What about the drugs called, "Disulfiriam" and "Naltrexone"? Are they easy for Alcoholics to take, and really help them get better?