Availability of internationally controlled pharmaceutical opioids for medical use has stabilized in recent years.

• Availability of pharmaceutical opioids for medical use more than doubled between 1998 and 2024 – driven by a strong increase until 2013, followed by a decline and partial recovery in recent years.
• Pharmaceutical opioids for medical use remain dominated by opiates (57 per cent in 2024), notably by various opioid preparations (34 per cent of total) often used in cough syrups.
• Opioids used exclusively as analgesics to reduce moderate to severe pain accounted for 29 per cent of all opioid consumption in 2024. Their availability has increased over the long term but declined by a third between 2012 and 2024. Almost two thirds of these analgesics were synthetic opioids in 2024.