Darknet sales, mostly drug related, increased to around US$2.5 billion in 2025 – and are increasingly driven by wholesale sales while the bulk of retail online sales takes place on social media.
Darknet market sales (mostly drug-related) reached some US…
More countries perceived an increase in drug-related deaths in 2024 than a decrease.Toxicological findings reported by 66 countries suggest that opioids are by far the most common substance involved in direct drug-related deaths, with cocaine now ranking second after overtaking (albeit by a small…
Drug mixtures present on the drugs market may cause additional harms alongside those traditionally observed, due to issues such as user-unknown content, varying contents, the presence of harmful ingredients, or possible drug interactions, to name a few.New drug mixtures such as "tuci" pink cocaine…
Treatment coverage remains low globally, with strong regional and drug-specific differences.Only a small proportion of people with drug use disorders receive treatment, with coverage highest in Europe and lowest in Africa and Asia. Across all regions, the estimated treatment coverage is lower for…
The limited data available suggest that pathways into drug-related treatment and the types of treatment vary between regionsData from 61 countries suggest that pathways of referral vary by (sub)region: for example, in Africa, referral by friends and family or self-referral is most common, while in…
Global availability, coverage and accessibility of drug-related treatment varies across intervention types.Not all types of pharmacological treatment, psychosocial interventions and rehabilitation and aftercare are available in all countries. Opioid agonist maintenance therapy and opioid antagonist…
Data on specific population groups remain limited.The available information suggests higher levels of drug use, drug use disorders and injecting drug use among sex workers, people experiencing homelessness and those with severe mental illness compared with the general population, while these tend…
Men continue to make up the majority of people who use drugs, but gender differences vary by drug and region.In 2024, about three quarters of people who used drugs in the past year were men, though the share of women varies substantially by region and drug type. For example, only 8 per cent of…
Cannabis dominates the global number of seizure cases, followed by ATS (notably methamphetamine) and cocaine while cannabis and cocaine dominate seizures in terms of total weight.
Drug-related deaths continue to rise globally, with indirect causes accounting for most harm.The total global number of deaths directly or indirectly attributable to drugs continued to increase in 2023, although population-adjusted rates have grown more slowly, suggesting that the growth was in…
Global drug use continues to increase, driven by rising prevalence of use and population growth.An estimated 331 million people used a drug in the past 12 months in 2024, a 34 per cent increase since 2014 (with prevalence of use increasing by 20 per cent).Men account for the majority of users (249…
Cannabis remains the most widely used drug globally, with large differences across substances and regions.With an estimated 256 million users in 2024, cannabis remains by far the most used drug worldwide, followed by the non-medical use of opioids at 63 million.Men have a higher prevalence of drug…
