The number of people using drugs is increasing worldwide. The United Nations has expressed concern about this increase, particularly for synthetic drugs. Ukraine and Afghanistan in particular are under surveillance.
According to a UN report, the number of drug users worldwide has increased by almost a quarter within a decade. Between 2011 and 2021, the estimated number of people using drugs rose from 240 million to 296 million – a 23 percent increase, the report said annual report the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Only about half of this increase is due to global population growth. The number of people with drug addiction or disorders rose by 45 percent to 39.5 million during this period.
The UNODC also warned against the proliferation of synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine, amphetamine, fentanyl and also the many newly developed substances on the market. “The production of synthetic drugs is cheap, easy and fast,” it said. This highly flexible sector of the drug business is harder for authorities to trace because, unlike cocaine and heroin, for example, it is not tied to specific growing regions and growth cycles.
UN views Ukraine and Afghanistan with concern
The UNODC is therefore particularly monitoring the situation in Ukraine, where the authorities shut down 79 amphetamine laboratories in the year before the war began – the highest number in the world. Since the Russian invasion in early 2022, seizures of synthetic drugs in Ukraine have increased, while the market for such substances has grown in neighboring countries, UNODC Chief Analyst Angela Me reported.
In Afghanistan, the UNODC is monitoring signs of a decline in opium extraction from a Taliban ban. However, this could drive “a reorientation towards the production of synthetic drugs,” it said. Afghanistan is already not only the world’s most important exporter of the heroin raw material opium, but is also developing into one of the main producers of methamphetamine, also known as crystal meth.
But the UN drug experts are also concerned about the continued growth of the cocaine market. “In the global cocaine market, we are seeing a spiral where demand leads to more supply and supply leads to more demand,” Me said.
Cannabis and opioids are the most common causes of addiction
However, according to the UNODC, most cases of addiction and illness are still due to opioids – natural opiates and their artificial variants – and to cannabis. Almost 70 percent of the 128,000 drug deaths in 2019 used opioids, the report said.
However, cannabis remains the most commonly used drug. Addicts made up a significant proportion of drug therapy patients in many regions – 18 percent in Europe, and more than a third in Africa and Oceania. According to the UN drug agency, only a fifth of people with drug problems worldwide have access to treatment.