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…
There remains a large discrepancy between the Global North and the Global South in the availability of internationally controlled pharmaceutical opioids for medical use - even though the gap is declining.Between 2015 and 2024, the per capita availability of pharmaceutical opioids for medical use in…
Global opioid use has remained broadly stable, with strong regional differences in prevalence of use.The number of people who use opioids worldwide has remained relatively stable in the last five years, with the estimate for 2024 only slightly higher than the level in 2019.Prevalence of past-year…
Global opiate use has remained broadly stable, with slight declines in the prevalence of use.The number of people using opiates worldwide has remained stable over the last five years, while the annual prevalence of use declined slightly from 0.61 per cent in 2020 to 0.57 per cent in 2023 and 2024.…
Seven substances dominate the global availability of opioids under international control for medical consumption.Expressed in S-DDDs (defined daily doses for statistical purposes), methadone, followed by hydrocodone, fentanyl, buprenorphine, oxycodone, codeine (including preparations) and morphine…
The type of opioid that is most used non-medically varies across regions and countries.With the highest population globally, Asia is also the region with the highest number of people who use opioids.The type of opioid used differs across regions, with opiates such as heroin dominating in Asia and…
The non-medical use and trafficking of tramadol remain most concentrated in North Africa, West and Central Africa, and the Near and Middle East and South-West Asia, though there remains significant localized non-medical use in other regions.There remains a significant data gap on tramadol use and…
The health harms posed by the non-medical use of opioids remains high in North America, but have started to decline in late 2023 and in 2024.Opioid overdose deaths reached historical highs in the United States of America and Canada between 2021 and 2023 but have since started to decline, returning…
In East and South-East Asia, limited regular data collection makes it difficult to assess long-term trends in opioid use. However, data on people registered for drug use and people in drug treatment indicate a decline in opioid (mainly heroin) use over the past 10 to 15 years.In most of East and…
Opioid-related harms, measured as new people entering treatment, have declined in Europe.Although the share of people in treatment for opioid use disorders remains substantial in Europe, the number of people entering treatment for the first time has decreased.In Eastern Europe and South-Eastern…
The use of buprenorphine and methadone for medical purposes continues to expandMethadone and buprenorphine are the main substances used in substitution treatment for opioid dependent persons worldwide. Availability of both substances for medical use rose 10-fold over the last two decades and…
Fentanyls continue to account for the largest share of harm from the non-medical use of NPS synthetic opioids, in particular in North America, but the arrival on the market of nitazenes and orphines , which are often more potent than fentanyls, has led to a number of acute emergencies and fatal…
