Abuse of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs constitute a major health problem in the Unites States of America. This abuse causes strain on the health care system and contributes to the health problem and death of millions of Americans annually. Misuse of pain medications is a serious public health concern for the pain providers and administrators. This survey research was designed to assess the perception of illicit drug use by members of the lay population and how they would respond to the early warning signs of inappropriate drug use. A computer generated random telephone numbers of adults living in a capital city of the USA was used. The study was approved by the institutional IRB. Analysis of 53 completed questionnaire showed that the average age of the survey respondents was 42.5 years. The median group (29%) had a high school education, closely followed by those with some college education (25.8%). 50% of respondents have had a direct family exposure to the use of illegal drugs in the past. Cocaine was felt to be the major drug problem in the country today (chosen by 35.8% of the respondents). Marijuana was selected by 17.0%. Prescription drug abuse was selected by only 6% of the respondents. Loss of control over use was perceived as the hallmark of addiction by 34%. Continued use despite presence of harm was selected by 29.8%, while 12.8% selected long term use as the hallmark of addiction. Majority of respondents (45%) felt that once a person gets addicted to drugs, treatment and rehabilitation programs usually do not work. Majority of the survey respondents would take their family members to a substance abuse clinic as a first choice (55%), while 20.7% would go to their family physician, and 13.8% would go to their church.