World Drug Report 2026

Drug traffickers are exploiting technologies and global instability to introduce novel drugs, experiment with different trade routes and methods, and aggressively push into new markets, said the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in its World Drug Report 2026 released today.

“We have seen an unprecedented spike in new types of drugs on the market, and worryingly, some are more potent or dangerous than before,” said Monica Juma, Executive Director of UNODC. “And, we are already suffering the impact: millions of premature deaths and healthy years of life needlessly lost; drug trafficking networks that are distorting economies; the destruction of lives, communities and livelihoods; and the compounding of insecurity and violence. The imperative to focus on stopping organized crime groups has never been greater. We must surge deterrence efforts, increase intelligence-sharing and coordinate joint operations, while investing more in prevention and treatment.”

An estimated 331 million people used a drug in 2024, or 6.2 per cent of the global population aged between 15 and 64, compared to 5.2 per cent in 2014. Cannabis remains the most widely used drug by far, with 256 million users in 2024, followed by opioids (63 million), amphetamines (32 million), cocaine (25 million) and ecstasy (21 million).