Background: The Government of India report “ Magnitude of Substance Use in India, 2019” highlights increasing trends of substance use disorders (SUDs) and lack of evidence based prevention programmes. We designed a study to assess community perception about SUDs and its solution. Methods: A cross sectional study (N = 216) was conducted in 2022, by organizing awareness camps in ten villages of district Solan by securing Ethics committee clearance. Results: Gender had a significant relation with education, occupation level and ever used pattern of drugs. SUDs prevalence of 31.9% was observed with10-29 year age group, the most affected. Percent prevalence of alcohol abuse was 25.5 followed by tobacco (smoked):16.7; tobacco (non-smoked, chewable): 14.8; cannabinoids: 5.6; opioid: 0.9 and prescription drugs: 0.5. 64.7 percent respondents had knowledge about reasons behind SUDs. Most common reason cited( in percent) was peer pressure (28.7 ) followed by mental illness (18.5), parent pampering (17.1), habit (15.3), richness of families (25.0), entertainment (15.3), unemployment (14.8), drug availability (6.5), mobile usage (6.5), loneliness (4.2) and impact of movies (1.9). 54.2 percent suggested methods for ameliorating SUDs. Significant suggestions were awareness generation and prohibition of drugs ((28.2 and 27.3 percent respectively). Conclusion: On the recommendations of the study, the State Government has enforced a rule to debar the school play grounds from becoming mere parking spaces for vehicles and that to keep them open till late evening hours for encouraging the sports activities by youth along with strict policing in rural areas to check the drug menace.