World Drug Report

The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime has released the World Drug Report 2010.  Globally, it is estimated that in 2010 between 153 million and 300 million people aged 15-64 had used an illicit substance at least once in the previous year. It is also estimated this illicit drug use resulted in between 99,000 and 253,000 deaths globally in 2010.  Further, it was estimated that in 2008 there were 16 million injecting drug users worldwide and that 3 million (18.9 per cent) of them were living with HIV.

The first part of this year’s Report provides an overview of recent trends and the drug situation in terms of production, trafficking and consumption, as well as the consequences of illicit drug use - treatment, drug related diseases and drug-related deaths. The second part starts with a discussion of the main characteristics of the contemporary drug problem, followed by an overview of the shifts observed over the last few decades, before concluding with an analysis of the driving factors that shaped the evolution of the drug problem, including a brief outlook for its likely future direction.