UNODC World Drug Report 2026: Global drug markets transforming rapidly as technology, novel drug types and instability present traffickers with new opportunities

VIENNA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 26th Jun, 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 organised 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.

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2% of the global population aged between 15 and 64, compared to 5.2% 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).

Illicit drug manufacturers continue to invent new synthetic drugs in attempts to skirt regulations and avoid detection, with five times more drug types found in seizures in 2024 than before 2000. The number of new psychoactive substances (NPS) reported to have been circulating in drug markets, for example, reached 755 in 2024, with 118 of these substances reported for the first time.

The increasing availability of novel synthetic opioids such as fentanyls, nitazenes and orphines on the market suggests that traffickers are searching for alternatives to heroin. A turn away from plant-based opiates toward synthetics could cause a permanent shift in the global opioid market, with ramifications on how these drugs are used and the harms therein.