Director-General/Executive Director
Ambassador Ruiz Blanco,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am very pleased to be addressing you today at this CND Chair’s special event to commemorate the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, and to launch the 2023 edition of UNODC’s flagship World Drug Report.
The findings of the 2023 report reflect the continued suffering caused by the world drug problem.
Globally, more than 296 million people used drugs in 2021, an increase of 23 percent over ten years.
In the same period, the number of people suffering from drug use disorders went up at more than twice that pace, rising by 48 percent to reach almost 40 million people.
Yet also in 2021, only one in five people with drug use disorders were in treatment.
Meanwhile more than 13 million people injected drugs, over half of them living with hepatitis C, HIV, or both.
The consequences of drug use, and the deficit in access to treatment, run parallel to the inequalities that plague our world and our societies.
People belonging to higher socioeconomic groups are more likely to initiate drug use, but those from lower socioeconomic groups are more likely to become drug dependent.
There are large disparities in the availability and quality of treatment in different regions and countries, especially between the global North and South.
And everywhere, those who are marginalized are less likely to receive treatment or ask for it, held back by stigma, discrimination, and poverty, among other factors.
In some regions, for example, the percentage of women among those in treatment for drug use disorders is lower than 10 percent.
Medicines containing controlled substances are similarly out of reach for too many who need them.
The number of doses of pharmaceutical opioids available in high income countries remains much higher than in low and middle-income countries.
In some cases, it is thousands of times higher, even as many people suffer needless pain due to insufficient availability, especially in the global South.
As inequalities multiply health gaps between people, the illicit drug economy is multiplying the harms caused to people, including by converging with other threats.
Crises of conflict, climate, and economic hardship have left more than 110 million people worldwide displaced, making them more vulnerable to drug risks and more difficult to reach with treatment.
Armed conflicts have presented criminals with opportunities, for example in Ukraine, where trafficking of synthetic drugs is showing signs of potential expansion; in the Sahel where the illicit drug trade finances non-state armed groups; and in Haiti where cocaine and cannabis traffickers are taking advantage of porous borders.
Drug trafficking also compounds the harms caused to vulnerable communities by other crimes.
This year’s report dedicates a chapter to the Amazon Basin, where drug trafficking and production are linked with crimes that affect the environment, exposing indigenous peoples and local communities to even greater risks of violence, victimization, and severe health impacts.
At the same time, the criminal model of drug trafficking itself is evolving.
Different parts of the supply chain are fragmenting, making them more agile and replaceable.
The rise of cheap, fast, and easy to produce synthetic drugs is flooding many markets with lethal substances such as methamphetamine and fentanyl.
And seizures of new psychoactive substances have risen by 40 per cent in one year.
The evidence is clear: drug-related challenges are causing more and more human suffering, and responses are struggling to keep up.
It is time to put people at the center of drug responses, and to prioritize their safety, dignity, and health.
And it is time to treat the victims of the world drug problem with compassion, stigmatizing the illicit drug market and not the people it preys on.
Excellencies,
This year, we have taken an innovative approach with the World Drug Report, convinced that more focused and accessible data will help you formulate more effective policies.
For the first time, the report is presented in an interactive online format, with interactive graphs, infographics, and maps.
It also covers contemporary issues related to drugs, from synthetics, to drug crime in the Amazon Basin, to substance use disorders among displaced populations, to innovations in services and regulations, and more.
Just as we look to move forward in the way we understand and analyse the world drug problem, we must also move forward in the way we respond.
Moving forward means ending discrimination towards people who use drugs, to ensure that every person in need has access to treatment, and that their human rights are respected.
It means investing much more in early prevention, especially among young people, to stop drug use and its preventable health risks from becoming a new normal.
It means exploring the complex relationship between drugs and mental health, and how we can limit harms and also reap the benefits of possible medical applications.
And it means more targeted law enforcement responses to meet specific challenges in a swiftly evolving market.
It is my hope that this year’s World Drug Report will prove valuable to Member States and partners in making progress against the world drug problem.
I also hope that the report, this event, and the theme of our international day contribute positively to the 2024 CND mid-term high level review of all international drug policy commitments.
Let us work together to pursue balanced, humane, and effective drug responses, putting people first.
Thank you.