The weight of cocaine seizures increased by 70 per cent between 2020 and 2024, reflecting an ongoing expansion of both the supply and demand for cocaine at the global level.
Seizures of opiates, expressed in heroin equivalents, fell by 65 per cent between 2020 and 2024; the decline started in 2022 following the announcement of the poppy ban in Afghanistan and continued in 2023 and 2024 as previously accumulated stocks shrank in recent years.
In contrast, seizures of pharmaceutical opioids more than doubled over the 2020-2024 period, reflecting a strong growth of synthetic opioids in recent years.
Quantities of ATS seized increased almost 30-fold between 1998 and 2024; between 2020 and 2024 seizures increased by 16 per cent. Seizures of plant-based NPS declined strongly between 2020 and 2022 before partially recovering in subsequent years while seizures of synthetic NPS increased strongly between 2020 and 2024 (from 13 to 46 tons) though remaining below the peak reported a decade earlier (50 tons in 2014).
