Overview
- The UN Office on Drugs and Crime found an estimated 331 million people used drugs in 2024, equal to 6.2% of ages 15–64 and up from a decade earlier.
- The report recorded 755 new psychoactive substances in 2024, including 118 identified that year, noting many are more potent and harder for health and legal systems to detect.
- The UNODC presented its World Drug Report in Vienna on June 26 and linked a 2022 Afghan opium ban to a global move from plant-based opiates toward synthetic opioids such as fentanyls and nitazenes.
- The agency said Mexican cartels now supply most methamphetamine to North America and have exported synthesis methods abroad, while countries such as Peru face growing local supply and youth exposure to drugs like ketamine.
- The report highlights how social media, messaging apps, AI, cryptocurrencies and delivery services are widening access and complicating policing, prompting calls for stronger international law enforcement cooperation alongside expanded prevention and treatment.