OBJECTIVE: In this study, we conducted a survey of all the institutions that provide treatment for psychoactive substances in the state of Espirito Santo, Brazil during the period 2004-2005. METHOD: We used a snowball sampling technique to include all the treatment facilities in our State in which we employed a semi-structured interview instrument for key informants at each institution. We present descriptive results and test differences between groups using the Chi-square test. RESULTS: In Espirito Santo, 250 institutions provide treatment for psychoactive substances and are distributed as follows: governmental (17.6%), nongovernmental (22.8%), and self-help groups (59.6%). Of these 250 institutions, 85 provide direct care, with the majority found in the Central region (70.6%) and followed by the Northern (15.3%) and Southern (14.1%) regions. The majority of those that provide direct care are private nonprofit centers (16.8%) institutions with ties to religious organizations make up nearly one-third (30.6%) of direct care providers. The drugs most consumed by those seeking care are alcohol (82.4%), tobacco (81.2%) and marijuana (68.2%). The institutions generally give assistance to people in the 26-45 years age group (89.4%); with regard to gender, the institutions take care of: men (31.8%), women (5.9%), and both sexes (56.5%). The treatment models most used are psychosocial (58.8%), therapeutic community (47.1%) and biomedical (43.5%) and the work is evaluated through the team technique (72.9 %). CONCLUSIONS: In the state of Espirito Santo, indirect care services are many times greater than those that offer direct care and the majority of all services are in the Central region. The populations in the mainland have a comparative disadvantage when it comes to treatment options for psychoactive substance use. We observed that a significant number of institutions that provide drug abuse treatment have financial support from religious organizations. The Espirito Santo State survey demonstrates the necessity of a decentralized provision of specialized care for psychoactive substance users, with substantially more services directed to the Northern and Southern regions of the state. Moreover, the emphasis of these new institutions should be on outpatient care.