Vienna: With global opium cultivation highest since the late-1930s, a total of 246 million people, slightly over 5 per cent of those aged 15 to 64 years worldwide, used an illicit drug in 2013, according to the 2015 World Drug Report of the United Nations office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The 2015 World Drug Report finds drug use stable, access to drug & HIV treatment still low.
Drug use prevalence continues to be stable around the world; nearly 27 million people are problem drug users, almost half of whom are people who inject drugs (PWID). An estimated 1.65 million of people who inject drugs were living with HIV in 2013. Men are three times more likely than women to use cannabis, cocaine and amphetamines, while women are more likely to misuse prescription opioids and tranquillizers.
Speaking on the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov noted that, although drug use is stable around the world, only one out of six problem drug users has access to treatment. “Women in particular appear to face barriers to treatment – while one out of three drug users globally are a woman, only one out of five drug users in treatment is a woman.” Additionally, Mr Fedotov stated that more work needed to be done to promote the importance of understanding and addressing drug dependence as a chronic health condition which, like other chronic conditions such as diabetes or hypertension, require long-term, sustained treatment and care. “There is no quick and simple remedy for drug dependence and we need to invest in long term, medical evidence-based solutions.”
A stable yet still unacceptably high number of drug users worldwide continue to lose their lives prematurely, the UNODC Chief said, with an estimated 187,100 drug-related deaths in 2013. The World Drug Report includes data – gathered jointly with UNAIDS, WHO and the World Bank – on HIV prevalence among PWID. In some countries women who inject drugs are more vulnerable to HIV infection than men and the prevalence of HIV can be higher among women who inject drugs than among their male counterparts. The number of new HIV infections among PWID declined by roughly 10 per cent between 2010 and 2013: from an estimated 110,000 to 98,000. However, the World Drug Report also indicates that many risk factors, including the transmission of infectious diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis C and the incidences of drug overdoses, cause the death rate among PWID to be 15 times higher than in the rest of the population.
While data indicate that the use of opiates (heroin and opium) has remained stable at the global level and cocaine use has declined overall, the use of cannabis and the non-medical use of pharmaceutical opioids have continued to rise. Evidence suggests that more drug users are suffering from cannabis use disorders, and that cannabis may be becoming more harmful, as reflected in the high proportion of persons seeking first-time treatment in several regions of the world. Demand for treatment has also increased for amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) – including methamphetamine and MDMA or ‘Ecstasy’ – and for new psychoactive substances (NPS), also known as ‘legal highs’.