The United Nations (UN) has issued a warning about the explosion of the global drug market, marked by a sharp rise in new synthetic drugs, cocaine, and methamphetamine. Drug trafficking gangs are taking advantage of global instability to penetrate new markets, according to the World Drug Report released Friday by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The report stresses that both new and established drugs are proliferating, filling the void left by the Taliban's ban on opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. UNODC Executive Director Monica Juma stated: 'We are witnessing an unprecedented increase in new drugs entering the market, and alarmingly, some are more potent or dangerous than before.'
According to the report, the number of drug types discovered in 2024 was five times higher than just four years earlier, as manufacturers continuously invent new synthetic drugs to evade detection. The UN recorded 755 novel psychoactive substances (NPS) in circulation in 2024, with 118 reported for the first time.
This surge comes as heroin production and use remain impacted by the Taliban's 2022 opium ban in Afghanistan. This has driven the growing popularity of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, nitazenes, and orphines—which are more potent and easier to produce. UNODC warns this could cause a permanent shift in the global market and increase risks to users.
Methamphetamine trafficking is estimated to be growing 13% annually based on seizure volumes. New routes and the spread of production have created fresh markets, particularly in Africa, the Near and Middle East, and parts of Europe. The fall of the Assad regime in Syria in 2024 disrupted the Captagon market and drove up prices, leading the UN to fear users may switch from this amphetamine-type stimulant to methamphetamine.
Cocaine production has hit an all-time high, quadrupling over a decade to exceed 4,000 metric tons of pure cocaine in 2024. Organized crime groups continue to boost consumption in both traditional and emerging markets to expand their customer base, while quality improves and prices fall.
