The Centre for Social Justice - set up by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith - said drink and drug abuse cost the UK £36bn a year.
Its report warned that the UK has become a hub for websites peddling potentially dangerous "legal highs".
The CSJ also criticised the government for failing to tackle heroin addiction and cheaply available alcohol.
The report, No Quick Fix, found that last year 52 people in England and Wales died after taking legal highs, up from 28 the previous year.
The substances, sometimes referred to as club drugs and including Salvia and Green Rolex, are often marketed as bath salts or research chemicals.
But the drugs can be sold legally as long as they are clearly marked "not for human consumption", but have been known to cause permanent bladder damage, blood poisoning and death.
According to the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), there are now more than 130 UK-registered websites selling the products cheaply by mail order - making postal service workers unwitting drug mules.
The report said that almost a third of people in England on drug-substitute prescriptions such as methadone have been on them for four or more years, and one in 25 for more than 10 years.
The CSJ found alcohol dependence among British men was second in western Europe and seventh overall, while alcohol dependence among women is higher in the UK than anywhere in Europe.
One in four adults in England drank to harmful levels, and one in 20 were "dependent drinkers", it said.
The report also found a stark north-south divide in the problem of alcohol abuse, with 26 of the 30 local authorities with the highest rate of alcohol-related admissions in the north of the country.
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