VIENNA, June 26, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Drug use around the world is rising, including a worrying increase of new potent and dangerous synthetic drugs, a UN watchdog warned on Friday.

An estimated 331 million people used a drug in 2024, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime(UNODC) said in its 2026 World Drug Report.

This is 6.2 percent of the global population aged 15-64, an increase from 5.2 percent in 2014.

Cannabis remained the most popular drug globally in 2024, followed by opioids, amphetamines, cocaine and ecstasy, the UNODC said.

But novel synthetic opioids such as fentanyls, nitazenes and orphines, sought as a heroin substitute, have become increasingly available.

"We have seen an unprecedented spike in new types of drugs on the market, and worryingly, some are more potent or dangerous than before," UNODC head Monica Juma said in a statement.

Drug producers kept coming up with new synthetic drugs "in attempts to skirt regulations and avoid detection," the agency said.

Drug seizures in 2024 revealed "five times more drug types" than before 2000, it added.

"The number of new psychoactive substances (NPS) reported to have been circulating in drug markets... reached 755 in 2024, with 118 of these substances reported for the first time," the UNODC said.

The global opium and heroin market was still heavily affected by the ban on poppy cultivation introduced by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2022, the report said.

This has made drug dealers look for synthetic alternatives like fentanyls.

"A turn away from plant-based opiates toward synthetics could cause a permanent shift in the global opioid market, with ramifications on how these drugs are used and the harms therein," the UNODC said.

The watchdog also observed the emergence of new markets for methamphetamine, produced largely by Myanmar, but also in North America, west and southern Africa and southwest Asia.

Cannabis use keeps growing too, also because of legalisation and decriminalisation -- user numbers grew by 40 percent between 2014 and 2024 as almost five percent of the global population aged 15-64 used cannabis in 2024.

Cocaine output grew more than fourfold over the monitored decade, and traffickers increased supplies targeting both established markets in Europe, America and Oceania, but also new ones in Africa and Asia, the UNODC said.