Record Levels of Global Drug Use Alarm Public Health Experts

Global drug use has reached the highest level ever recorded. That is the stark finding of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) World Drug Report 2026, published on 26 June 2026. The report paints a troubling picture of rapidly shifting illicit markets and increasingly potent substances. It also highlights widening health inequalities across the globe.

An estimated 331 million people used an illicit drug in 2024. That represents 6.2 per cent of the world’s population aged between 15 and 64, up from 5.2 per cent a decade ago. The sharp rise in worldwide drug use has prompted urgent calls from the UN for greater investment in deterrence, prevention and treatment services.

Cannabis remained the most widely used substance, with 256 million users in 2024. It was followed by opioids with 63 million users, amphetamines with 32 million, cocaine with 25 million and ecstasy with 21 million. The surge in synthetic drugs, many unknown to medical science until recently, has drawn the sharpest warnings from researchers and public health officials.

Synthetic Drugs Are Driving a Dangerous Shift in Worldwide Drug Use

Drug manufacturers continue to engineer novel substances to skirt regulations and evade detection. The number of different drug types found in seizures is now five times higher than before the year 2000. In 2024 alone, authorities identified 755 new psychoactive substances (NPS) circulating in illicit markets. Of those, 118 had never been reported before.

Chloé Carpentier, lead researcher on the report, described the implications plainly: “The market is becoming very diverse, but also perhaps more dangerous. We don’t always know what we are taking, and first responders don’t know what they are responding to.”

Unknown substances pose a serious challenge for emergency services. Responders may have no reference point for treating overdoses involving compounds that had not existed the previous year.

The Opioid Market Faces a Structural Turning Point

The global opioid trade is at a turning point. Afghanistan’s 2022 ban on opium cultivation sharply reduced the supply of plant-based heroin. Production in Myanmar climbed from 420 tonnes in 2021 to over 1,000 tonnes in 2025. Even so, combined output across Myanmar, Laos and Mexico still falls well short of the more than 6,000 tonnes Afghanistan produced in 2022 alone.

Traffickers appear to be filling that gap with synthetic alternatives. Fentanyls, nitazenes and a class of substances known as orphines are increasingly appearing in seizures. The UNODC warns that a permanent shift from plant-based opiates to synthetics could cause significantly greater harm. Some newer synthetic opioids are far more potent than fentanyl, itself estimated to be around 100 times stronger than morphine.

“We see a lot of nitazenes now,” Ms Carpentier noted. “The worry is really that synthetic opioids might replace heroin and lead to much more harm.”

Methamphetamine Spreads into New Global Drug Use Markets

Once concentrated in East and South-East Asia, methamphetamine has become a truly global drug. Seizures have grown at an average rate of 13 per cent per year. The drug is now reaching new markets across the Near and Middle East, Africa and parts of Europe.

Myanmar remains the dominant source country. However, suppliers from North America, West and Southern Africa, and South-West Asia have entered the trade. Methamphetamine from North America is crossing the Pacific, contributing to rising use in Pacific Island nations. In the Middle East, the disruption of the captagon market following the fall of Syria’s Assad regime in December 2024 may be pushing some users towards methamphetamine instead.

The widening reach of methamphetamine supply chains reflects a broader trend: illicit drug markets are becoming more interconnected and harder to contain within regional borders.

Cannabis Use Up 40 Per Cent Over a Decade

Worldwide drug use of cannabis shows a striking upward trend. The number of users grew by 40 per cent over the past ten years. Prevalence rose from 3.8 per cent of those aged 15 to 64 in 2014 to 4.8 per cent in 2024. Cannabis seizures also reached historically high levels last year.

Changing legal frameworks across parts of North America have coincided with shifts in public perception. As a result, cannabis trafficking has become increasingly international. Between 2015 and 2024, 57 countries or territories outside North America identified the region as a source of seized cannabis. That compares with just 11 in the preceding decade.

Cocaine Supply Continues to Outpace Demand

Cocaine production rose more than fourfold over the past decade, reaching an estimated 4,000 tonnes in 2024. Increased productivity and expanded cultivation have driven that growth. Organised crime groups are pushing into new destination markets in Africa and Asia, where growth rates for cocaine seizures are among the highest in the world despite relatively low volumes overall.

Inequality Shapes Who Bears the Burden of Global Drug Use

The burden of global drug use does not fall equally. Poverty, homelessness and poor mental health all increase vulnerability to drug use disorders and reduce access to treatment.

Women are particularly disadvantaged. Despite progressing more rapidly to dependence, they are far less likely to receive help. Only one in 23 women with drug use disorders receives treatment globally, compared with one in nine men. Women who inject drugs are also 20 per cent more likely to be living with HIV than male counterparts.

Young people are another major concern. “Adolescence is really a critical period when the brain is still developing,” Ms Carpentier said. “Drug use during adolescence will have long-lasting effects on cognition and behaviour.”

Refugees and internally displaced people face heightened risk as well. They encounter greater exposure to drug markets while struggling to access treatment, as humanitarian responses prioritise immediate survival needs.

Prevention and International Cooperation Must Lead the Response

UNODC Executive Director Monica Juma called for urgent, coordinated global action. “We have seen an unprecedented spike in new types of drugs on the market, and worryingly, some are more potent or dangerous than before,” she said. “The imperative to focus on stopping organised crime groups has never been greater. We must surge deterrence efforts, increase intelligence-sharing and coordinate joint operations, while investing more in prevention and treatment.”

As worldwide drug use grows more complex, Ms Carpentier stressed that no single country can tackle the problem alone. “We cannot achieve anything without international cooperation,” she said.

The World Drug Report 2026 makes clear that the scale of global drug use now demands a serious and sustained response. That response must address criminal networks driving supply and the social conditions that leave communities vulnerable to harm.

Source: dbrecoveryresources