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…
Non-traditional cocaine markets in Africa, Asia and some subregions of Europe are rapidly expanding as shown by supply and demand indicators.Given the substantial population of these regions, even a small increase in the prevalence of use could translate to a large increase in the number of people…
Africa has increasingly become a transit and destination region for cocaine trafficking and use.Cocaine seizures in Africa have increased over 20-fold between 2015 and 2024 and an increasing number of seizures implicate African countries as transit or destination. In 2023, seizures en route to…
Asia has increasingly become a transit and destination region for cocaine trafficking and use over the past decade, although the growth in indicators of availability and use is moderate.Cocaine seizures in Asia increased more than sixfold between 2015 and 2024. Additionally, the number of seizures…
The global cocaine market continues to experience strong growth in supply and demand, and organized crime groups continue to funnel continue to funnel increasingly large quantities of cocaine towards established and emerging destination markets.Taking potential cocaine manufacture and seizures into…
