The An estimated 331 million people used drugs in 2024, the UN World Drug Report 2026, released by UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Friday, has disclosed.

This is equivalent to 6.2 per cent of the world’s population aged 15 to 64, up from 5.2 per cent a decade ago.

UNODC said more people were using drugs than ever before, while synthetic substances were reshaping illicit markets and exposing vulnerable communities to greater health risks.

The Executive Director of the UNODC, Monica Juma, decried that global drug use reached record high in the past year as increasingly potent synthetic drugs spread.

“We have seen an unprecedented spike in new types of drugs on the market, and worryingly, some are more potent or dangerous than before,” Juma said.

The 2026 World Drug Report provides an in-depth analysis of the latest trafficking and use trends on cannabis, cocaine, methamphetamine, opioids and more.

Cannabis remained the most widely used drug, with 256 million users, followed by opioids (63 million), amphetamines (32 million), cocaine (25 million) and ecstasy (21 million).

The report also highlighted the rapid evolution of synthetic drugs.

In 2024, authorities identified 755 new psychoactive substances, including 118 reported for the first time, while the number of different drugs detected in seizures is now five times higher than before the year 2000.

“The market is becoming very diverse, but also perhaps more dangerous,” Chloé Carpentier, lead researcher for the report, said.

“We don’t always know what we are taking, and first responders don’t know what they are responding to.”

UNODC said the global opioid market is reaching a turning point.

The report warns that a shift away from plant-based opiates could permanently transform the global opioid market, with potentially greater health risks as some synthetic opioids are even more potent than fentanyl.

“We see a lot of netizens now,” Carpentier said, adding, “The worry is really that synthetic opioids might replace heroin and lead to much more harm.”

“Methamphetamine has become a truly global market, with new trafficking routes expanding across the Near and Middle East, Africa and parts of Europe.”

The report stressed that the harms associated with drug use are shaped not only by the substances themselves but also by poverty, homelessness, poor mental health and unequal access to healthcare.

Women remain significantly less likely than men to receive treatment in spite of progressing more rapidly to drug dependence.

Globally, only one in 23 women with drug use disorders receives treatment, compared with one in nine men.

Women who inject drugs are also 20 per cent more likely to be living with HIV than men. Young people remain another major concern.

“Adolescence is really a critical period when the brain is still developing,” Carpentier said, adding, “Drug use during adolescence will have long-lasting effects on cognition and behaviour.”

People displaced by conflict and humanitarian emergencies face heightened risks.

According to the report, refugees and internally displaced people are more vulnerable to drug use disorders while often struggling to access treatment, as humanitarian responses understandably prioritise food, shelter and other immediate needs.

Conflict and drug trafficking reinforce one another, creating a cycle in which instability fuels illicit markets while trafficking profits help finance further violence.

As drug markets become increasingly complex and interconnected, Carpentier said international cooperation remains essential, emphasising that “we cannot achieve anything without international cooperation.”