UNODC – Key Findings and Conclusions
- Drug use has been increasing over the past decade. New and more accurate data put the global estimate of people who used a drug in the past year at 292 million (or 5.6 per cent of the population aged 15 to 64) in 2022. This is 20 % more than a decade earlier, partly due to population growth.
- In 2022, cannabis remained the most used drug worldwide, with an estimated 228 million users in the past year, followed by opioids, with 60 million, amphetamine-type stimulants, with 30 million, and cocaine and “ecstasy”, with 23 million and 20 million, respectively.
- There has been a marked increase in the use of stimulant drugs such as cocaine and “ecstasy” after the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Men make up the large majority of people who use drugs, but women who use drugs face greater harms and more barriers to entering treatment. Although men account for a far larger share of offences related to drug trafficking and use, women tend to have greater involvement with synthetic drugs than with plant-based drugs and once involved they suffer from higher levels of harm than men.
- Use of cannabis among adolescents remains a concern in many regions, with the additional challenge of the practice of vaping that is spreading in North America, at an age when drug use can cause lasting damage to brain development.
- Opioids continue to be the most harmful drug class in terms of drug-related deaths, but in half of the reporting countries, cannabis is the drug that most often leads to drug use disorders.
(For all four Reports – Source: UNODC – World Drug Report 2024)
