This report contains the recommendations of the Physician Consortium for significantly improving medical education and training to enhance the physician's role in early identification, treatment, and prevention of substance abuse. In addition, the consortium subcommittees report on their examination of substance abuse treatment needs of ethnic and racial minority groups and on the unique training needs that are especially germane to the care of adolescents and children. Recommendations address the need for changes in undergraduate medical education, graduate medical education, and continuing medical education; they also focus special attention on the concerns of adolescents and children and the multicultural issues in substance abuse education and training of physicians. The report concludes with background information on the problems of substance abuse in general and on certain specific substances--cocaine, marijuana, alcohol and tobacco products--in particular. Contains 32 references. (GLR)