The illicit ketamine market has expanded beyond Asia, with rising use and emerging harms in new regions.Once concentrated in East and South-East Asia, several countries with time-series data (for example, the United Kingdom, Australia or the United States) have recorded an increase in the use of…
Cannabis use remains widespread globally, with steady long-term growth.Prevalence of past-year cannabis use is highest in North America, Australia and New Zealand, and West and Central Africa, while North America and South Asia have the highest number of people who use cannabis.Cannabis use has…
Similarly to most internationally controlled drugs, the use of NPS among adolescents is higher than among the general population, but the difference between adolescent boys and girlsis lower for NPS than for controlled drugs.Limited data suggest that NPS use is generally higher among school…
The number of NPS on the global market increased strongly in 2024 following a short period of decline between 2021 and 2023.The number of NPS on the global market rose by 30 per cent in 2024 compared to 2023 and reached a new record high of 755 substances – the number rose almost five-fold compared…
The use of cannabis continues to grow in almost all regions of the world.The number of cannabis users has increased worldwide over the past 20 years, particularly in Africa, Asia and the Americas, while remaining relatively stable in Europe and Oceania.The annual prevalence of cannabis use has also…
Cannabis continues to be the most widely produced, trafficked and consumed drug worldwide in 2024. As in previous years, seizures of cannabis herb exceeded those of cannabis resin.
While remaining at low levels in recent years, seizures of plant-based NPS are increasingly dominated by kratom, followed by khat.In contrast to the upward trend in seizures of synthetic NPS, seizures of plants-based drugs fluctuated while remaining at low levels over the 2021-2024 period. Overall…
Seizures of synthetic NPS have trended upwards since 2018 – though they still remain below the peak reported in 2012.The number of countries reporting seizures of synthetic NPS rose from, on average, just 5 over the period 2000-2004 to 80 over the period 2010-2014, before peaking over the period…
Between 2000 and 2020, cannabis in Western and Central Europe and parts of South-Eastern Europe became more potent, more affordable and more frequently used in a number of countries, although these trends have stabilized in recent years.Despite this stabilization, the number of cannabis-related…
Limited data suggest stable or declining NPS use among young people, with some exceptions.Time-series data on NPS use among young people are scarce and largely limited to high-income countries.Where data are available, the use of NPS is generally stable or declining, as corroborated by recent…
The introduction of control mechanisms has mitigated the spread of semi-synthetic cannabinoids that started to appear after 2020After 2020 and 2021, semi-synthetic cannabinoids, in particular delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-8-THC) and hexahydrocannabinol (HHC) have appeared on the market mostly…
Globally, the use of synthetic NPS continues to be lower than most internationally controlled drugs.Based on the available data – mainly from high-income countries – the use of synthetic NPS is generally lower than the use of drugs under international control. By contrast, the scarce data on plant-…
