Drug Use Worldwide Hits Staggering Record High As Cocaine, Meth Markets Boom

Drug Use Worldwide Hits Staggering Record High As Cocaine, Meth Markets Boom

Erinn Broadus on June 26, 2023

There were 296 million people worldwide who used drugs in 2021, a 23% increase from 10 years prior, according to a new report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

In 2021, one in every 17 people ages 15 to 64 had used drugs within the past year, while those with substance abuse disorders skyrocketed to 39.5 million, a 45% increase from 10 years ago, according to the UNODC, which partly attributed the rise to population growth but also to an increase in drug use. Moreover, in 2021, 36 million individuals used amphetamines, 22 million used cocaine and 60 million used non-prescription opioids.

Cocaine use has been steadily increasing for the past two decades, according to the report. Additionally, meth production has expanded beyond traditional markets to include large clandestine labs in areas not previously known to traffic the drug, like Africa and Afghanistan.

There were 22 million cocaine users in 2021, the most recent year for the data. The global cocaine market is largely in the Americas and in Western and Central Europe, but it has started to expand in Africa, Asia and Southern/Eastern Europe.

The 2023 #WorldDrugReport is out today!

Drug trafficking organizations have a significant role in perpetrating crimes that affect the environment with an impact that goes beyond deforestation.

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“The world is currently experiencing a prolonged surge in both supply and demand of cocaine, which is now being felt across the globe and is likely to spur the development of new markets beyond the traditional confines,” the report said.

Methamphetamine use, trafficking and manufacturing are currently centralized in North America and Southeast Asia, with 90% of seizures in one of the two areas between 2017 and 2021. Trafficking has stabilized at a “high level” in these areas, but has expanded significantly to new areas like the middle east and certain parts of Africa, the UNODC reported.

Afghanistan produced 80% of the global supply of opium, the main ingredient in heroin, in 2022. Despite a recent drug ban introduced the same year, there is evidence of large-scale mass production of methamphetamine in the country, and experts do not yet know if these two drug production lines will run in tandem or independently from each other.