While scholars are not in accord on the basic causes of contemporary drug abuse among minority Americans, most do agree that the social milieu of the drug abuser is fundamental. It has been urged that racism, poverty, police brutality and harrassment, the economics of addiction, the hopelessness of ghetto life, peer pressure, educational deficiencies, rising material aspirations, and general frustration arising from discrmination all underlie a century or more of addiction in many communities of minority Americans. In treating these drug abusers little attention has been paid to analyses of possible changes in their social settings or to likely developments in the treatment alternatives made possible by such changes. Responsible leaders of health organizations are now able to commission, or undertake themselves, studies using the views and methods of futures researchers, e.g., trend extrapolation, modeling, the Delphi Technique, and scenario writing. Rational planning by social and health agencies based on an orientation to the future is certainly better than continuation of work in the present tense only. Potential changes in values, politics, social organization, financing, the bases of poverty, and growing ethnic diversity must be taken into account before a rounded set of relatively meaningful alternative futures for drug abuse treatment in minority communities can be offered. (PAS)