Coca bush cultivation and potential cocaine manufacture reached record highs in 2024The global area under coca cultivation reached a record 385,100 hectares in 2024 – almost triple the 2014 level – while global illicit cocaine manufacture reached 4,100 tons (range: 3,800-4,700 tons) in 2024, more…
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…
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-…
The dark web, consisting of a multitude of darknet markets, is part of the deep web, and can be used for a large number of illegal activities, including drug trafficking.The dark web is part of the deep web and can be accessed using specialized tools such as the TOR browser; while access itself is…