“We have seen an unprecedented increase in new types of drugs on the market, and worryingly, some are more potent or dangerous than before,” said Monica Juma, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
An estimated 331 million people used drugs in 2024, corresponding to 6.2 percent of the world’s population aged 15 to 64, up from 5.2 percent a decade ago.
Cannabis remained the most widely used drug with 256 million users, followed by opioids (63 million), amphetamines (32 million), cocaine (25 million) and ecstasy (21 million).
The report also highlights rapid development of synthetic substances. In 2024, the authorities identified 755 new psychoactive substances, of which 118 were reported for the first time, while the number of different substances detected in seizures is now five times higher than before the year 2000.
“The market is becoming very diverse, but perhaps also more dangerous,” said Chloé Carpentier, lead researcher for the report, in an interview with Pakinomist.
“We don’t always know what we’re taking and first responders don’t know what they’re reacting to.”
Reshaping the global market
The UNODC said the global opioid market is reaching a tipping point. Following Afghanistan’s 2022 ban on opium cultivation, the production of illegal heroin has dropped significantly.
Although opium production in Myanmar increased from 420 tons in 2021 to more than 1,000 tons in 2025, it, along with production in Laos and Mexico, has not replaced the more than 6,000 tons Afghanistan produced in 2022.
Instead, traffickers appear to be increasingly turning to synthetic opioids such as fentanyls, nitazenes, and orphins.
The report warns that a shift away from plant-based opiates could permanently transform the global opioid market, with potentially greater health risks as some synthetic opioids are even more potent than fentanyl.
“We’re seeing a lot of nitazenes now,” Ms. Carpentier said. “The real concern is that synthetic opioids could replace heroin and lead to much more harm.”
Changing human trafficking patterns
Methamphetamine has become a truly global market, with new trade routes expanding across the Near and Middle East, Africa and parts of Europe.
Seizures have grown by an average of 13 percent each year, while suppliers have expanded beyond Myanmar to include North America, West and South Africa, and Southwest Asia.
At the same time, hashish trafficking has become increasingly international, with 57 countries and territories outside North America identifying the region as a source of seized cannabis between 2015 and 2024, compared to just 11 in the previous decade.
Effects of inequality
The report emphasized that the harms associated with drug use are not only shaped by the drugs themselves, but also by poverty, homelessness, poor mental health and unequal access to health care.
Women remain significantly less likely than men to receive treatment, despite developing substance dependence more quickly.
Worldwide, only one in 23 women with substance abuse receive treatment, compared to one in nine men. Women who inject drugs are also 20 percent more likely to be living with HIV than men.
Young people are still another major concern.
“The teenage years are really a critical period when the brain is still developing,” Ms Carpentier said. “Adolescent substance use will have long-lasting effects on cognition and behavior.”
Conflict intensifies the crisis
People displaced by conflict and humanitarian emergencies face increased risks.
According to the report, refugees and internally displaced people are more vulnerable to substance use disorders, while often struggling to access treatment as humanitarian efforts understandably prioritize food, shelter and other immediate needs.
Conflict and drug trafficking reinforce each other, creating a cycle in which instability fuels the illicit markets, while trade profits help finance further violence.
As drug markets become increasingly complex and interconnected, Carpentier said international cooperation remains important, stressing that “we cannot achieve anything without international cooperation.”
