More than five per cent of the world’s population – some 250 million people – used illicit drugs in 2015 while almost 30 million people worldwide engaged in “problematic” drug use which could include dependence, according to a UN report released this week.
The latest World Drug Report, released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, also showed that opioids – used by some 35 million people – accounted for 70 per cent of the negative health impacts associated with drug disorders with the majority of the estimated minimum 190,000 premature deaths from drugs attributable to use of them.
Cannabis, however, remained the most popular illicit drug – used by 183 million people, followed by amphetamines and prescription stimulents (37 million), ecstasy (22 million), opiates (18 million) and cocaine (17 million). Opioids sat third on the list.
The report says the “magnitude of the harm” caused by drug use is underlined by the estimated 28 million years of “healthy life” years it estimates were lost worldwide in 2015 as a result of premature death and disability caused by drug use.
Meanwhile, of the estimated 12 million people who inject drugs, one in eight are living with HIV and more than half are living with hepatitis C. Some 1.3 million drug injectors are suffering from both HIV and hepatitis C.
Noting that the diversity of drugs available has “widened considerably” in recent years at what Yury Fedotov, UNODC executive director, called an “alarming speed”, the report said that overall, “drug trafficking seems to have increased slightly in 2015 and some drug markets, particularly the cocaine and synthetic drugs markets, appear to be thriving.”
In terms of supply, global opium production rose by a third in 2016 compared with the previous year – primarily due to higher opium poppy yields in Afghanistan, while coca bush cultivation has increased by 30 per cent over the past few years, a rise largely attributed to increased cultivation in Colombia.
The report also examined the links between drugs and crime. It said transnational organised crime groups generated between a fifth and a third of their total revenues from drug sales in 2014. While drug trafficking over the so-called ‘darknet’ remains small, one study showed that the number of drug transactions conducted over it rose 50 per cent annually between September, 2013, and January, 2016, with typical buyers described as recreational users of cannabis, ecstasy, cocaine, hallicinogens and new psychoactive substances.
The report said that while not all terrorist groups depend on drug profits, some do – proceeds from drug production and trafficking, for example, make up almost half of the Taliban’s income with as much as 85 per cent of opium cultivation in Afghanistan occurring in territory under some influence of the group.
