The world's illegal drug markets are growing in volume, diversifying and spreading into new regions, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime's latest World Drug Report — a picture the agency says is straining both law enforcement and health systems.

Cocaine at a record high

Cocaine production reached an all-time high in 2024, exceeding 4,000 tonnes of pure product — roughly a fourfold rise over the past decade — Al Jazeera reported, citing the UNODC report. The agency says traffickers have pushed prices down and quality up to widen their markets.

A surge in new substances

The report points to a striking proliferation of new psychoactive substances (NPS): about 755 types were in circulation in 2024, roughly five times the number four years earlier, with 118 detected for the first time that year, according to the UNODC findings. Of particular concern are synthetic opioids — including fentanyl and newer compounds — which are more potent than heroin and easier to produce at scale, raising the risk of overdose deaths. UNODC's leadership warned of an "unprecedented spike" in new drugs, some more dangerous than before.

Meth spreads to new regions

Methamphetamine trafficking is growing at around 13% a year by seizure data, the report says, expanding from its traditional strongholds in East and Southeast Asia and North America into Africa, the Middle East and parts of Europe.

Geopolitics reshapes the market

Two upheavals are redrawing supply lines, the report notes. The Taliban's 2022 ban on opium cultivation in Afghanistan — long the world's top heroin source — has helped push the opioid market toward synthetic alternatives that need no poppy crop and are harder to intercept. And the fall of the Assad government in Syria in late 2024 disrupted production of Captagon, an amphetamine-type stimulant common in the Middle East, which UNODC says could push users toward methamphetamine.

What the UN urges

UNODC called for stronger early-warning systems to track fast-changing drug chemistries, investment in treatment and harm reduction, and deeper international cooperation against trafficking and precursor-chemical networks. The World Drug Report is the agency's flagship annual assessment, drawing on national data, seizures and drug-checking services; some detailed figures in the full report could not be independently confirmed at the time of writing.