posts: 17842

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id	title	slug	type	status	content	archieml	archieml_update_statistics	published_at	updated_at	gdocSuccessorId	authors	excerpt	created_at_in_wordpress	updated_at_in_wordpress	featured_image	formattingOptions	markdown	wpApiSnapshot
17842	Opioids, Cocaine, Cannabis, and Other Illicit Drugs	illicit-drug-use	page	publish	<!-- wp:html --> <!-- formatting-options toc:false bodyClassName:topic-page --> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:owid/sticky-nav --> <!-- wp:navigation-link {"label":"Introduction","url":"#introduction","kind":"custom","isTopLevelLink":false} /--> <!-- wp:navigation-link {"label":"Key insights","url":"#key-insights-on-illicit-drug-use","kind":"custom","isTopLevelLink":false} /--> <!-- wp:navigation-link {"label":"Charts","url":"#interactive-charts-on-opioids-cocaine-cannabis-and-other-illicit-drugs","kind":"custom","isTopLevelLink":false} /--> <!-- wp:navigation-link {"label":"Endnotes","url":"#endnotes","kind":"custom","isTopLevelLink":false} /--> <!-- wp:navigation-link {"label":"Cite This Work","url":"#citation","kind":"custom","isTopLevelLink":false} /--> <!-- wp:navigation-link {"label":"Reuse This Work","url":"#licence","kind":"custom","isTopLevelLink":false} /--> <!-- /wp:owid/sticky-nav --> <!-- wp:owid/front-matter --> <!-- wp:columns {"className":"front-matter"} --> <div class="wp-block-columns front-matter"><!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column" id="introduction"><!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Illicit drugs are drugs that have been prohibited under international drug control treaties.{ref}Babor, Caulkins, and Edwards (2010) – Drug policy and the public good. Oxford University Press.{/ref} </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>International statistics typically focus on four different groups of illicit drugs: opioids, cocaine, cannabis, and amphetamines. However, a range of other illicit drugs is included in international drug control treaties, including plant-based drugs and synthetic hallucinogens. The UNODC's publication "Terminology and Information on Drugs"{ref}United Nations International Drug Control Programme. Laboratory Section. (2016). <a href="https://www.unodc.org/documents/scientific/Terminology_and_Information_on_Drugs-E_3rd_edition.pdf"><em>Terminology and information on drugs: third edition</em></a>. United Nations Publications.{/ref} contains a comprehensive list of illicit drugs.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Excess consumption or dependency on illicit drugs can impact overall health, mental well-being, and in many cases, the well-being of others. Not all illicit drugs have similar impacts on health and well-being: some cause much less harm than others.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>On this page, you can find a list of key insights as well as a list of visualizations on illicit drug use. This provides a global overview of illicit drug use, dependency disorders, and some of their impacts.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --></div> <!-- /wp:column --> <!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:group {"className":"related-topics"} --> <div class="wp-block-group related-topics"><!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Related topics</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><li><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/smoking">Smoking</a></li><li><a href="http://ourworldindata.org/mental-health">Mental Health</a></li><li><a href="http://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption">Alcohol Consumption</a></li></ul> <!-- /wp:list --></div> <!-- /wp:group --></div> <!-- /wp:column --></div> <!-- /wp:columns --> <!-- /wp:owid/front-matter --> <!-- wp:owid/key-insights-slider {"title":"Key insights on Illicit drug use","slug":"key-insights-on-illicit-drug-use"} --> <!-- wp:owid/key-insight {"title":"People can die directly or indirectly from drug use","slug":"people-can-die-directly-or-indirectly-from-drug-use"} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>People can die from illicit drug use in several ways. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The first is that the use of illicit drugs at any point in someone’s life can act as an indirect risk factor for premature death from disease or injury.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The second is that illicit drugs can result in direct deaths from drug dependency and overdoses.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The chart shows us that hundreds of thousands die indirectly or directly from illicit drug use each year.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":5} --> <h5>What you should know about this data</h5> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><li>These estimates come from the <a href="https://www.healthdata.org/">Global Burden of Disease</a> study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.<br></li><li>There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.<br></li><li>The IHME’s definition of a substance use disorder is based on the WHO’s <a href="https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases">International Classification of Diseases</a> (ICD). Substance use disorders include alcohol and all illicit drugs (whether prescribed or otherwise) including opioids, cocaine, amphetamine, and cannabis. They do not include smoking.<br></li><li>The data presented here is for illicit drug use only. It does not include alcohol, or smoking, which we cover separately in our pages on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption">Alcohol consumption</a> and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/smoking">Smoking</a>.<br></li><li>Illicit drugs include pharmaceutical drugs – such as heroin and other opioids and benzodiazepines; plant-based drugs – such as cocaine and cannabis; and synthetic drugs – such as amphetamines.</li></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- /wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-illicit-drugs" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- /wp:owid/key-insight --> <!-- wp:owid/key-insight {"title":"Opioids were responsible for the largest number of drug deaths","slug":"opioids-were-responsible-for-the-largest-number-of-drug-overdoses"} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>An overdose is taking a toxic (poisonous) quantity of a substance, regardless of whether it is a prescription, legal, or illegal drug. This can be intentional, but can also result from 'poisoning' where substances have been altered or mixed, such that the user is unaware of the drug's potency.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Globally, more than 100,000 people die from drug overdoses every year.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Most of these deaths are the result of opioid overdoses. Opioid deaths have risen steeply in recent years – most notably in the United States.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Opioids are used in prescription drugs and pain-relievers – such as OxyContin and Vicodin – in synthetic opioids such as fentanyl; or drugs such as heroin.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In their review, MacLean et al. (2021) provide a detailed analysis on the rise in opioid deaths.{ref}Maclean, J. C., Mallatt, J., Ruhm, C. J., & Simon, K. (2021). <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w28067">Economic studies on the opioid crisis: A review</a>. <em>National Bureau of Economic Research</em>.{/ref} </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>They describe the crisis as evolving in three phases, over several decades from the 1990s. The first phase involved an increase in the use of prescribed opioids as a result of lenient regulations on prescriptions and marketing by pharmaceuticals. The second phase involved a tightening of these restrictions alongside a shift in drug use towards heroin. The third phase – since 2013 – has seen a shift towards synthetic opioids including fentanyl. This has also involved a significant increase in treatment services.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":5} --> <h5>What you should know about this data</h5> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><li>These estimates come from the <a href="https://www.healthdata.org/">Global Burden of Disease</a> study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.<br></li><li>There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.</li></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- /wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-drug-overdoses?facet=metric&country=OWID_WRL~USA" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- /wp:owid/key-insight --> <!-- wp:owid/key-insight {"title":"Opioid deaths in the US have risen steeply in recent years","slug":"opioid-deaths-in-the-us-have-risen-steeply-in-recent-years"} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Death rates from illicit drugs are highest in the United States. A large driver of this has been a steep rise in opioid deaths over the last decade.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In the chart, we see death rates in the United States from overdoses of different drugs. Since 2010, death rates from opioids have more than tripled.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In 2017, the US Department of Health and Human Services <a href="https://public3.pagefreezer.com/browse/HHS.gov/31-12-2020T08:51/https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2017/10/26/hhs-acting-secretary-declares-public-health-emergency-address-national-opioid-crisis.html">declared</a> the opioid crisis a public emergency.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":5} --> <h5>What you should know about this data</h5> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><li>This data comes from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s <a href="https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates">WONDER programme</a>.</li><li>An overdose is taking a toxic (poisonous) quantity of a substance, regardless of whether it is a prescription, legal, or illegal drug. This can be intentional, but can also result from 'poisoning' where substances have been altered or mixed, such that the user is unaware of the drug's potency.</li><li>Death rates are measured as the number of people that die from overdoses per 100,000 people in the population. Unlike data from the IHME, these are ‘crude death rates’ that are not age-standardized.</li></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- /wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/drug-overdose-death-rates" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- /wp:owid/key-insight --> <!-- wp:owid/key-insight {"title":"The US has the highest death rates from opioids and illicit drugs","slug":"the-us-has-the-highest-death-rates-from-opioids-and-illicit-drugs"} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Opioids are responsible for the largest number of overdose deaths globally.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Death rates from illicit drugs are the highest in the United States. This is largely the result of a steep rise in opioid deaths in recent years.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This chart shows death rates from opioid overdoses, measured as the number of deaths per 100,000 people in the population.{ref}Note that these figures are <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/age-standardization">age-standardized</a> (which means they assume a constant age structure of the population over time) whereas the previous key insight showed figures that were not age-standardized.{/ref}</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This is not only the case for opioids: the US also has the highest death rate from <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-amphetamine">amphetamine</a> and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-cocaine">cocaine</a> overdoses.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:owid/prominent-link {"title":"","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-amphetamine","className":"is-style-thin"} /--> <!-- wp:owid/prominent-link {"title":"","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-cocaine","className":"is-style-thin"} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:owid/prominent-link --> <!-- wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":5} --> <h5>What you should know about this data</h5> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><li>Death rates are measured as the number of people that die from overdoses per 100,000 people in the population. Since the age and structure of populations will differ between countries and will change over time, death rates have <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/age-standardization">been age-standardized</a>. This means they assume the structure of the population is the same across countries, and over time.</li><li>These estimates come from the <a href="https://www.healthdata.org/">Global Burden of Disease</a> study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.</li><li>There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.</li></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- /wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-from-opioid-use" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- /wp:owid/key-insight --> <!-- wp:owid/key-insight {"title":"Just under 1% of the world has an illicit drug dependency","slug":"just-under-1-of-the-world-has-an-illicit-drug-dependency"} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>It’s estimated that just under 1% of the world population had some form of drug dependency – excluding alcohol and tobacco.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This chart shows estimates of the share of the population with an addiction or dependency on any form of illicit drug.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>As you can see, there are large differences in drug dependency across countries, with some – such as the United States and Canada – having several times the global average.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":5} --> <h5>What you should know about this data</h5> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><li>These estimates come from the <a href="https://www.healthdata.org/">Global Burden of Disease</a> study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.<br></li><li>There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.<br></li><li>The IHME’s definition of a substance use disorder is based on the WHO’s <a href="https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases">International Classification of Diseases</a> (ICD). Substance use disorders include alcohol and all illicit drugs (whether prescribed or otherwise) including opioids, cocaine, amphetamine, and cannabis. They do not include smoking.<br></li><li>The data presented here is for illicit drug use only. It does not include alcohol, or smoking, which we cover separately in our pages on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption">Alcohol consumption</a> and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/smoking">Smoking</a>.<br></li><li>Illicit drugs include pharmaceutical drugs – such as heroin and other opioids and benzodiazepines; plant-based drugs – such as cocaine and cannabis; and synthetic drugs – such as amphetamines.</li></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- /wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-with-drug-use-disorders?country=~OWID_WRL" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- /wp:owid/key-insight --> <!-- wp:owid/key-insight {"title":"Men are more likely to have a drug dependency","slug":"men-are-more-likely-to-have-a-drug-dependency"} --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>There are significant sex differences in the likelihood that someone develops an illicit drug dependency.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In the chart, we see the share of men that have a dependency on any type of illicit drug (on the y-axis) versus the share of women that do (on the x-axis). The grey line shows us where the rates in men and women would be equal. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Almost every country lies above the grey line. This means that drug use disorder rates are higher in men than they are in women in almost all countries in the world.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":5} --> <h5>What you should know about this data</h5> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><li>These estimates come from the <a href="https://www.healthdata.org/">Global Burden of Disease</a> study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.<br></li><li>There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.<br></li><li>The IHME’s definition of a substance use disorder is based on the WHO’s <a href="https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases">International Classification of Diseases</a> (ICD). Substance use disorders include alcohol and all illicit drugs (whether prescribed or otherwise) including opioids, cocaine, amphetamine, and cannabis. They do not include smoking.<br></li><li>The data presented here is for illicit drug use only. It does not include alcohol, or smoking, which we cover separately in our pages on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption">Alcohol consumption</a> and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/smoking">Smoking</a>.<br></li><li>Illicit drugs include pharmaceutical drugs – such as heroin and other opioids and benzodiazepines; plant-based drugs – such as cocaine and cannabis; and synthetic drugs – such as amphetamines.</li></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- /wp:owid/technical-text --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-drug-use-disorders-males-vs-females" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- /wp:owid/key-insight --> <!-- /wp:owid/key-insights-slider --> <!-- wp:owid/all-charts /-->	{ "id": "wp-17842", "slug": "illicit-drug-use", "content": { "toc": [], "body": [ { "left": [ { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Illicit drugs are drugs that have been prohibited under international drug control treaties.{ref}Babor, Caulkins, and Edwards (2010) \u2013 Drug policy and the public good. 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United Nations Publications.{/ref} contains a comprehensive list of illicit drugs.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Excess consumption or dependency on illicit drugs can impact overall health, mental well-being, and in many cases, the well-being of others. Not all illicit drugs have similar impacts on health and well-being: some cause much less harm than others.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "On this page, you can find a list of key insights as well as a list of visualizations on illicit drug use. This provides a global overview of illicit drug use, dependency disorders, and some of their impacts.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] } ], "type": "sticky-right", "right": [ { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Related topics", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "list", "items": [ { "type": "text", "value": [ { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/smoking", "children": [ { "text": "Smoking", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/mental-health", "children": [ { "text": "Mental Health", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption", "children": [ { "text": "Alcohol Consumption", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" } ], "parseErrors": [] } ], "parseErrors": [] } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "People can die from illicit drug use in several ways.\u00a0", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "The first is that the use of illicit drugs at any point in someone\u2019s life can act as an indirect risk factor for premature death from disease or injury.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "The second is that illicit drugs can result in direct deaths from drug dependency and overdoses.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "The chart shows us that hundreds of thousands die indirectly or directly from illicit drug use each year.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "text": [ { "text": "What you should know about this data", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "type": "heading", "level": 2, "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "list", "items": [ { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "These estimates come from the ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://www.healthdata.org/", "children": [ { "text": "Global Burden of Disease", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). 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This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-from-opioid-use", "type": "chart", "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "It\u2019s estimated that just under 1% of the world population had some form of drug dependency \u2013 excluding alcohol and tobacco.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "This chart shows estimates of the share of the population with an addiction or dependency on any form of illicit drug.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "As you can see, there are large differences in drug dependency across countries, with some \u2013 such as the United States and Canada \u2013 having several times the global average.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "text": [ { "text": "What you should know about this data", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "type": "heading", "level": 2, "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "list", "items": [ { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "These estimates come from the ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://www.healthdata.org/", "children": [ { "text": "Global Burden of Disease", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). 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What is the impact?	2019-12-09 16:42:28	2024-01-12 13:47:55	https://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Illicit-Drug-Use.png	{ "toc": false, "bodyClassName": "topic-page" }	Illicit drugs are drugs that have been prohibited under international drug control treaties.{ref}Babor, Caulkins, and Edwards (2010) – Drug policy and the public good. Oxford University Press.{/ref} International statistics typically focus on four different groups of illicit drugs: opioids, cocaine, cannabis, and amphetamines. However, a range of other illicit drugs is included in international drug control treaties, including plant-based drugs and synthetic hallucinogens. The UNODC's publication "Terminology and Information on Drugs"{ref}United Nations International Drug Control Programme. Laboratory Section. (2016). [_Terminology and information on drugs: third edition_](https://www.unodc.org/documents/scientific/Terminology_and_Information_on_Drugs-E_3rd_edition.pdf). United Nations Publications.{/ref} contains a comprehensive list of illicit drugs. Excess consumption or dependency on illicit drugs can impact overall health, mental well-being, and in many cases, the well-being of others. Not all illicit drugs have similar impacts on health and well-being: some cause much less harm than others. On this page, you can find a list of key insights as well as a list of visualizations on illicit drug use. This provides a global overview of illicit drug use, dependency disorders, and some of their impacts. Related topics * [Smoking](https://ourworldindata.org/smoking) * [Mental Health](http://ourworldindata.org/mental-health) * [Alcohol Consumption](http://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption) People can die from illicit drug use in several ways. The first is that the use of illicit drugs at any point in someone’s life can act as an indirect risk factor for premature death from disease or injury. The second is that illicit drugs can result in direct deaths from drug dependency and overdoses. The chart shows us that hundreds of thousands die indirectly or directly from illicit drug use each year. ## What you should know about this data * These estimates come from the [Global Burden of Disease](https://www.healthdata.org/) study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders. * There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures. * The IHME’s definition of a substance use disorder is based on the WHO’s [International Classification of Diseases](https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases) (ICD). Substance use disorders include alcohol and all illicit drugs (whether prescribed or otherwise) including opioids, cocaine, amphetamine, and cannabis. They do not include smoking. * The data presented here is for illicit drug use only. It does not include alcohol, or smoking, which we cover separately in our pages on [Alcohol consumption](https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption) and [Smoking](https://ourworldindata.org/smoking). * Illicit drugs include pharmaceutical drugs – such as heroin and other opioids and benzodiazepines; plant-based drugs – such as cocaine and cannabis; and synthetic drugs – such as amphetamines. <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-illicit-drugs"/> An overdose is taking a toxic (poisonous) quantity of a substance, regardless of whether it is a prescription, legal, or illegal drug. This can be intentional, but can also result from 'poisoning' where substances have been altered or mixed, such that the user is unaware of the drug's potency. Globally, more than 100,000 people die from drug overdoses every year. Most of these deaths are the result of opioid overdoses. Opioid deaths have risen steeply in recent years – most notably in the United States. Opioids are used in prescription drugs and pain-relievers – such as OxyContin and Vicodin – in synthetic opioids such as fentanyl; or drugs such as heroin. In their review, MacLean et al. (2021) provide a detailed analysis on the rise in opioid deaths.{ref}Maclean, J. C., Mallatt, J., Ruhm, C. J., & Simon, K. (2021). [Economic studies on the opioid crisis: A review](https://www.nber.org/papers/w28067). _National Bureau of Economic Research_.{/ref} They describe the crisis as evolving in three phases, over several decades from the 1990s. The first phase involved an increase in the use of prescribed opioids as a result of lenient regulations on prescriptions and marketing by pharmaceuticals. The second phase involved a tightening of these restrictions alongside a shift in drug use towards heroin. The third phase – since 2013 – has seen a shift towards synthetic opioids including fentanyl. This has also involved a significant increase in treatment services. ## What you should know about this data * These estimates come from the [Global Burden of Disease](https://www.healthdata.org/) study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders. * There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures. <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-drug-overdoses?facet=metric&country=OWID_WRL~USA"/> Death rates from illicit drugs are highest in the United States. A large driver of this has been a steep rise in opioid deaths over the last decade. In the chart, we see death rates in the United States from overdoses of different drugs. Since 2010, death rates from opioids have more than tripled. In 2017, the US Department of Health and Human Services [declared](https://public3.pagefreezer.com/browse/HHS.gov/31-12-2020T08:51/https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2017/10/26/hhs-acting-secretary-declares-public-health-emergency-address-national-opioid-crisis.html) the opioid crisis a public emergency. ## What you should know about this data * This data comes from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s [WONDER programme](https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates). * An overdose is taking a toxic (poisonous) quantity of a substance, regardless of whether it is a prescription, legal, or illegal drug. This can be intentional, but can also result from 'poisoning' where substances have been altered or mixed, such that the user is unaware of the drug's potency. * Death rates are measured as the number of people that die from overdoses per 100,000 people in the population. Unlike data from the IHME, these are ‘crude death rates’ that are not age-standardized. <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/drug-overdose-death-rates"/> Opioids are responsible for the largest number of overdose deaths globally. Death rates from illicit drugs are the highest in the United States. This is largely the result of a steep rise in opioid deaths in recent years. This chart shows death rates from opioid overdoses, measured as the number of deaths per 100,000 people in the population.{ref}Note that these figures are [age-standardized](https://ourworldindata.org/age-standardization) (which means they assume a constant age structure of the population over time) whereas the previous key insight showed figures that were not age-standardized.{/ref} This is not only the case for opioids: the US also has the highest death rate from [amphetamine](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-amphetamine) and [cocaine](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-cocaine) overdoses. ### https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-amphetamine ### https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-cocaine ## What you should know about this data * Death rates are measured as the number of people that die from overdoses per 100,000 people in the population. Since the age and structure of populations will differ between countries and will change over time, death rates have [been age-standardized](https://ourworldindata.org/age-standardization). This means they assume the structure of the population is the same across countries, and over time. * These estimates come from the [Global Burden of Disease](https://www.healthdata.org/) study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders. * There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures. <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-from-opioid-use"/> It’s estimated that just under 1% of the world population had some form of drug dependency – excluding alcohol and tobacco. This chart shows estimates of the share of the population with an addiction or dependency on any form of illicit drug. As you can see, there are large differences in drug dependency across countries, with some – such as the United States and Canada – having several times the global average. ## What you should know about this data * These estimates come from the [Global Burden of Disease](https://www.healthdata.org/) study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders. * There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures. * The IHME’s definition of a substance use disorder is based on the WHO’s [International Classification of Diseases](https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases) (ICD). Substance use disorders include alcohol and all illicit drugs (whether prescribed or otherwise) including opioids, cocaine, amphetamine, and cannabis. They do not include smoking. * The data presented here is for illicit drug use only. It does not include alcohol, or smoking, which we cover separately in our pages on [Alcohol consumption](https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption) and [Smoking](https://ourworldindata.org/smoking). * Illicit drugs include pharmaceutical drugs – such as heroin and other opioids and benzodiazepines; plant-based drugs – such as cocaine and cannabis; and synthetic drugs – such as amphetamines. <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-with-drug-use-disorders?country=~OWID_WRL"/> There are significant sex differences in the likelihood that someone develops an illicit drug dependency. In the chart, we see the share of men that have a dependency on any type of illicit drug (on the y-axis) versus the share of women that do (on the x-axis). The grey line shows us where the rates in men and women would be equal. Almost every country lies above the grey line. This means that drug use disorder rates are higher in men than they are in women in almost all countries in the world. ## What you should know about this data * These estimates come from the [Global Burden of Disease](https://www.healthdata.org/) study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders. * There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures. * The IHME’s definition of a substance use disorder is based on the WHO’s [International Classification of Diseases](https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases) (ICD). Substance use disorders include alcohol and all illicit drugs (whether prescribed or otherwise) including opioids, cocaine, amphetamine, and cannabis. They do not include smoking. * The data presented here is for illicit drug use only. It does not include alcohol, or smoking, which we cover separately in our pages on [Alcohol consumption](https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption) and [Smoking](https://ourworldindata.org/smoking). * Illicit drugs include pharmaceutical drugs – such as heroin and other opioids and benzodiazepines; plant-based drugs – such as cocaine and cannabis; and synthetic drugs – such as amphetamines. <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-drug-use-disorders-males-vs-females"/>	{ "id": 17842, "date": "2022-06-26T08:00:00", "guid": { "rendered": "https://owid.cloud/?page_id=17842" }, "link": "https://owid.cloud/illicit-drug-use", "meta": { "owid_publication_context_meta_field": [], "owid_key_performance_indicators_meta_field": { "raw": "620,000 people die prematurely from illicit drug use every year. \n\n45% are younger than 50 years old.", "rendered": "<p><strong>620,000</strong> people die prematurely from illicit drug use every year.</p>\n<p>45% are younger than 50 years old.</p>\n" } }, "slug": "illicit-drug-use", "tags": [], "type": "page", "title": { "rendered": "Opioids, Cocaine, Cannabis, and Other Illicit Drugs" }, "_links": { "self": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/pages/17842" } ], "about": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/types/page" } ], "author": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/users/17", "embeddable": true } ], "curies": [ { "href": "https://api.w.org/{rel}", "name": "wp", "templated": true } ], "replies": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=17842", "embeddable": true } ], "wp:term": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/categories?post=17842", "taxonomy": "category", "embeddable": true }, { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/tags?post=17842", "taxonomy": "post_tag", "embeddable": true } ], "collection": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/pages" } ], "wp:attachment": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/media?parent=17842" } ], "version-history": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/pages/17842/revisions", "count": 30 } ], "wp:featuredmedia": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/media/57412", "embeddable": true } ], "predecessor-version": [ { "id": 58614, "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/pages/17842/revisions/58614" } ] }, "author": 17, "parent": 0, "status": "publish", "content": { "rendered": "\n<!-- formatting-options toc:false bodyClassName:topic-page -->\n\n\n\t<div class=\"sticky-nav-contents\">\n<li class=\" wp-block-navigation-item wp-block-navigation-link\"><a class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__content\" href=\"#introduction\"><span class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__label\">Introduction</span></a></li>\n\n<li class=\" wp-block-navigation-item wp-block-navigation-link\"><a class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__content\" href=\"#key-insights-on-illicit-drug-use\"><span class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__label\">Key insights</span></a></li>\n\n<li class=\" wp-block-navigation-item wp-block-navigation-link\"><a class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__content\" href=\"#interactive-charts-on-opioids-cocaine-cannabis-and-other-illicit-drugs\"><span class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__label\">Charts</span></a></li>\n\n<li class=\" wp-block-navigation-item wp-block-navigation-link\"><a class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__content\" href=\"#endnotes\"><span class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__label\">Endnotes</span></a></li>\n\n<li class=\" wp-block-navigation-item wp-block-navigation-link\"><a class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__content\" href=\"#citation\"><span class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__label\">Cite This Work</span></a></li>\n\n<li class=\" wp-block-navigation-item wp-block-navigation-link\"><a class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__content\" href=\"#licence\"><span class=\"wp-block-navigation-item__label\">Reuse This Work</span></a></li>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns front-matter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\" id=\"introduction\">\n<p>Illicit drugs are drugs that have been prohibited under international drug control treaties.{ref}Babor, Caulkins, and Edwards (2010) \u2013 Drug policy and the public good. Oxford University Press.{/ref} </p>\n\n\n\n<p>International statistics typically focus on four different groups of illicit drugs: opioids, cocaine, cannabis, and amphetamines. However, a range of other illicit drugs is included in international drug control treaties, including plant-based drugs and synthetic hallucinogens. The UNODC’s publication “Terminology and Information on Drugs”{ref}United Nations International Drug Control Programme. Laboratory Section. (2016). <a href=\"https://www.unodc.org/documents/scientific/Terminology_and_Information_on_Drugs-E_3rd_edition.pdf\"><em>Terminology and information on drugs: third edition</em></a>. United Nations Publications.{/ref} contains a comprehensive list of illicit drugs.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Excess consumption or dependency on illicit drugs can impact overall health, mental well-being, and in many cases, the well-being of others. Not all illicit drugs have similar impacts on health and well-being: some cause much less harm than others.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>On this page, you can find a list of key insights as well as a list of visualizations on illicit drug use. This provides a global overview of illicit drug use, dependency disorders, and some of their impacts.</p>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<div class=\"wp-container-65e6e27b08a1c wp-block-group related-topics\">\n<p>Related topics</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/smoking\">Smoking</a></li><li><a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/mental-health\">Mental Health</a></li><li><a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption\">Alcohol Consumption</a></li></ul>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n\t<block type=\"key-insights\">\n\t\t<title>Key insights on Illicit drug use</title>\n <slug>key-insights-on-illicit-drug-use</slug>\n <insights>\n\t<block type=\"key-insight\">\n\t\t<title is-hidden=\"0\">People can die directly or indirectly from drug use</title>\n <slug>people-can-die-directly-or-indirectly-from-drug-use</slug>\n <content>\n\n<p>People can die from illicit drug use in several ways. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first is that the use of illicit drugs at any point in someone\u2019s life can act as an indirect risk factor for premature death from disease or injury.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second is that illicit drugs can result in direct deaths from drug dependency and overdoses.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The chart shows us that hundreds of thousands die indirectly or directly from illicit drug use each year.</p>\n\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-technical-text\">\n\t\t\n\n<h5>What you should know about this data</h5>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>These estimates come from the <a href=\"https://www.healthdata.org/\">Global Burden of Disease</a> study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.<br></li><li>There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.<br></li><li>The IHME\u2019s definition of a substance use disorder is based on the WHO\u2019s <a href=\"https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases\">International Classification of Diseases</a> (ICD). Substance use disorders include alcohol and all illicit drugs (whether prescribed or otherwise) including opioids, cocaine, amphetamine, and cannabis. They do not include smoking.<br></li><li>The data presented here is for illicit drug use only. It does not include alcohol, or smoking, which we cover separately in our pages on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption\">Alcohol consumption</a> and <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/smoking\">Smoking</a>.<br></li><li>Illicit drugs include pharmaceutical drugs \u2013 such as heroin and other opioids and benzodiazepines; plant-based drugs \u2013 such as cocaine and cannabis; and synthetic drugs \u2013 such as amphetamines.</li></ul>\n\n\n\t</div>\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-illicit-drugs\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n\n</content>\n\t</block>\n\n\t<block type=\"key-insight\">\n\t\t<title is-hidden=\"0\">Opioids were responsible for the largest number of drug deaths</title>\n <slug>opioids-were-responsible-for-the-largest-number-of-drug-overdoses</slug>\n <content>\n\n<p>An overdose is taking a toxic (poisonous) quantity of a substance, regardless of whether it is a prescription, legal, or illegal drug. This can be intentional, but can also result from ‘poisoning’ where substances have been altered or mixed, such that the user is unaware of the drug’s potency.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Globally, more than 100,000 people die from drug overdoses every year.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of these deaths are the result of opioid overdoses. Opioid deaths have risen steeply in recent years \u2013 most notably in the United States.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Opioids are used in prescription drugs and pain-relievers \u2013 such as OxyContin and Vicodin \u2013 in synthetic opioids such as fentanyl; or drugs such as heroin.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In their review, MacLean et al. (2021) provide a detailed analysis on the rise in opioid deaths.{ref}Maclean, J. C., Mallatt, J., Ruhm, C. J., & Simon, K. (2021). <a href=\"https://www.nber.org/papers/w28067\">Economic studies on the opioid crisis: A review</a>. <em>National Bureau of Economic Research</em>.{/ref} </p>\n\n\n\n<p>They describe the crisis as evolving in three phases, over several decades from the 1990s. The first phase involved an increase in the use of prescribed opioids as a result of lenient regulations on prescriptions and marketing by pharmaceuticals. The second phase involved a tightening of these restrictions alongside a shift in drug use towards heroin. The third phase \u2013 since 2013 \u2013 has seen a shift towards synthetic opioids including fentanyl. This has also involved a significant increase in treatment services.</p>\n\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-technical-text\">\n\t\t\n\n<h5>What you should know about this data</h5>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>These estimates come from the <a href=\"https://www.healthdata.org/\">Global Burden of Disease</a> study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.<br></li><li>There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.</li></ul>\n\n\n\t</div>\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-drug-overdoses?facet=metric&country=OWID_WRL~USA\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n\n</content>\n\t</block>\n\n\t<block type=\"key-insight\">\n\t\t<title is-hidden=\"0\">Opioid deaths in the US have risen steeply in recent years</title>\n <slug>opioid-deaths-in-the-us-have-risen-steeply-in-recent-years</slug>\n <content>\n\n<p>Death rates from illicit drugs are highest in the United States. A large driver of this has been a steep rise in opioid deaths over the last decade.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the chart, we see death rates in the United States from overdoses of different drugs. Since 2010, death rates from opioids have more than tripled.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2017, the US Department of Health and Human Services <a href=\"https://public3.pagefreezer.com/browse/HHS.gov/31-12-2020T08:51/https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2017/10/26/hhs-acting-secretary-declares-public-health-emergency-address-national-opioid-crisis.html\">declared</a> the opioid crisis a public emergency.</p>\n\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-technical-text\">\n\t\t\n\n<h5>What you should know about this data</h5>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>This data comes from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s <a href=\"https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates\">WONDER programme</a>.</li><li>An overdose is taking a toxic (poisonous) quantity of a substance, regardless of whether it is a prescription, legal, or illegal drug. This can be intentional, but can also result from ‘poisoning’ where substances have been altered or mixed, such that the user is unaware of the drug’s potency.</li><li>Death rates are measured as the number of people that die from overdoses per 100,000 people in the population. Unlike data from the IHME, these are \u2018crude death rates\u2019 that are not age-standardized.</li></ul>\n\n\n\t</div>\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/drug-overdose-death-rates\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n\n</content>\n\t</block>\n\n\t<block type=\"key-insight\">\n\t\t<title is-hidden=\"0\">The US has the highest death rates from opioids and illicit drugs</title>\n <slug>the-us-has-the-highest-death-rates-from-opioids-and-illicit-drugs</slug>\n <content>\n\n<p>Opioids are responsible for the largest number of overdose deaths globally.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Death rates from illicit drugs are the highest in the United States. This is largely the result of a steep rise in opioid deaths in recent years.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This chart shows death rates from opioid overdoses, measured as the number of deaths per 100,000 people in the population.{ref}Note that these figures are <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/age-standardization\">age-standardized</a> (which means they assume a constant age structure of the population over time) whereas the previous key insight showed figures that were not age-standardized.{/ref}</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is not only the case for opioids: the US also has the highest death rate from <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-amphetamine\">amphetamine</a> and <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-cocaine\">cocaine</a> overdoses.</p>\n\n\n <block type=\"prominent-link\" style=\"is-style-thin\">\n <link-url>https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-amphetamine</link-url>\n <title></title>\n <content></content>\n <figure></figure>\n </block>\n\n <block type=\"prominent-link\" style=\"is-style-thin\">\n <link-url>https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-cocaine</link-url>\n <title></title>\n <content>\n\n<p></p>\n\n</content>\n <figure></figure>\n </block>\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-technical-text\">\n\t\t\n\n<h5>What you should know about this data</h5>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Death rates are measured as the number of people that die from overdoses per 100,000 people in the population. Since the age and structure of populations will differ between countries and will change over time, death rates have <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/age-standardization\">been age-standardized</a>. This means they assume the structure of the population is the same across countries, and over time.</li><li>These estimates come from the <a href=\"https://www.healthdata.org/\">Global Burden of Disease</a> study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.</li><li>There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.</li></ul>\n\n\n\t</div>\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-from-opioid-use\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n\n</content>\n\t</block>\n\n\t<block type=\"key-insight\">\n\t\t<title is-hidden=\"0\">Just under 1% of the world has an illicit drug dependency</title>\n <slug>just-under-1-of-the-world-has-an-illicit-drug-dependency</slug>\n <content>\n\n<p>It\u2019s estimated that just under 1% of the world population had some form of drug dependency \u2013 excluding alcohol and tobacco.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This chart shows estimates of the share of the population with an addiction or dependency on any form of illicit drug.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As you can see, there are large differences in drug dependency across countries, with some \u2013 such as the United States and Canada \u2013 having several times the global average.</p>\n\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-technical-text\">\n\t\t\n\n<h5>What you should know about this data</h5>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>These estimates come from the <a href=\"https://www.healthdata.org/\">Global Burden of Disease</a> study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.<br></li><li>There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.<br></li><li>The IHME\u2019s definition of a substance use disorder is based on the WHO\u2019s <a href=\"https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases\">International Classification of Diseases</a> (ICD). Substance use disorders include alcohol and all illicit drugs (whether prescribed or otherwise) including opioids, cocaine, amphetamine, and cannabis. They do not include smoking.<br></li><li>The data presented here is for illicit drug use only. It does not include alcohol, or smoking, which we cover separately in our pages on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption\">Alcohol consumption</a> and <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/smoking\">Smoking</a>.<br></li><li>Illicit drugs include pharmaceutical drugs \u2013 such as heroin and other opioids and benzodiazepines; plant-based drugs \u2013 such as cocaine and cannabis; and synthetic drugs \u2013 such as amphetamines.</li></ul>\n\n\n\t</div>\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-with-drug-use-disorders?country=~OWID_WRL\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n\n</content>\n\t</block>\n\n\t<block type=\"key-insight\">\n\t\t<title is-hidden=\"0\">Men are more likely to have a drug dependency</title>\n <slug>men-are-more-likely-to-have-a-drug-dependency</slug>\n <content>\n\n<p>There are significant sex differences in the likelihood that someone develops an illicit drug dependency.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the chart, we see the share of men that have a dependency on any type of illicit drug (on the y-axis) versus the share of women that do (on the x-axis). The grey line shows us where the rates in men and women would be equal. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Almost every country lies above the grey line. This means that drug use disorder rates are higher in men than they are in women in almost all countries in the world.</p>\n\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-technical-text\">\n\t\t\n\n<h5>What you should know about this data</h5>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>These estimates come from the <a href=\"https://www.healthdata.org/\">Global Burden of Disease</a> study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.<br></li><li>There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.<br></li><li>The IHME\u2019s definition of a substance use disorder is based on the WHO\u2019s <a href=\"https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases\">International Classification of Diseases</a> (ICD). Substance use disorders include alcohol and all illicit drugs (whether prescribed or otherwise) including opioids, cocaine, amphetamine, and cannabis. They do not include smoking.<br></li><li>The data presented here is for illicit drug use only. 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17842

Opioids, Cocaine, Cannabis, and Other Illicit Drugs

illicit-drug-use

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<div class="wp-block-columns front-matter"> <div class="wp-block-column" id="introduction"> <p>Illicit drugs are drugs that have been prohibited under international drug control treaties.{ref}Babor, Caulkins, and Edwards (2010) – Drug policy and the public good. Oxford University Press.{/ref} </p>   <p>International statistics typically focus on four different groups of illicit drugs: opioids, cocaine, cannabis, and amphetamines. However, a range of other illicit drugs is included in international drug control treaties, including plant-based drugs and synthetic hallucinogens. The UNODC's publication "Terminology and Information on Drugs"{ref}United Nations International Drug Control Programme. Laboratory Section. (2016). <a href="https://www.unodc.org/documents/scientific/Terminology_and_Information_on_Drugs-E_3rd_edition.pdf"><em>Terminology and information on drugs: third edition</em></a>. United Nations Publications.{/ref} contains a comprehensive list of illicit drugs.</p>   <p>Excess consumption or dependency on illicit drugs can impact overall health, mental well-being, and in many cases, the well-being of others. Not all illicit drugs have similar impacts on health and well-being: some cause much less harm than others.</p>   <p>On this page, you can find a list of key insights as well as a list of visualizations on illicit drug use. This provides a global overview of illicit drug use, dependency disorders, and some of their impacts.</p> </div>   <div class="wp-block-column"> <div class="wp-block-group related-topics"> <p>Related topics</p>   <ul><li><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/smoking">Smoking</a></li><li><a href="http://ourworldindata.org/mental-health">Mental Health</a></li><li><a href="http://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption">Alcohol Consumption</a></li></ul> </div> </div> </div>      <p>People can die from illicit drug use in several ways. </p>   <p>The first is that the use of illicit drugs at any point in someone’s life can act as an indirect risk factor for premature death from disease or injury.</p>   <p>The second is that illicit drugs can result in direct deaths from drug dependency and overdoses.</p>   <p>The chart shows us that hundreds of thousands die indirectly or directly from illicit drug use each year.</p>    <h5>What you should know about this data</h5>   <ul><li>These estimates come from the <a href="https://www.healthdata.org/">Global Burden of Disease</a> study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.<br></li><li>There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.<br></li><li>The IHME’s definition of a substance use disorder is based on the WHO’s <a href="https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases">International Classification of Diseases</a> (ICD). Substance use disorders include alcohol and all illicit drugs (whether prescribed or otherwise) including opioids, cocaine, amphetamine, and cannabis. They do not include smoking.<br></li><li>The data presented here is for illicit drug use only. It does not include alcohol, or smoking, which we cover separately in our pages on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption">Alcohol consumption</a> and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/smoking">Smoking</a>.<br></li><li>Illicit drugs include pharmaceutical drugs – such as heroin and other opioids and benzodiazepines; plant-based drugs – such as cocaine and cannabis; and synthetic drugs – such as amphetamines.</li></ul>    <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-illicit-drugs" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe>     <p>An overdose is taking a toxic (poisonous) quantity of a substance, regardless of whether it is a prescription, legal, or illegal drug. This can be intentional, but can also result from 'poisoning' where substances have been altered or mixed, such that the user is unaware of the drug's potency.</p>   <p>Globally, more than 100,000 people die from drug overdoses every year.</p>   <p>Most of these deaths are the result of opioid overdoses. Opioid deaths have risen steeply in recent years – most notably in the United States.</p>   <p>Opioids are used in prescription drugs and pain-relievers – such as OxyContin and Vicodin – in synthetic opioids such as fentanyl; or drugs such as heroin.</p>   <p>In their review, MacLean et al. (2021) provide a detailed analysis on the rise in opioid deaths.{ref}Maclean, J. C., Mallatt, J., Ruhm, C. J., & Simon, K. (2021). <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w28067">Economic studies on the opioid crisis: A review</a>. <em>National Bureau of Economic Research</em>.{/ref} </p>   <p>They describe the crisis as evolving in three phases, over several decades from the 1990s. The first phase involved an increase in the use of prescribed opioids as a result of lenient regulations on prescriptions and marketing by pharmaceuticals. The second phase involved a tightening of these restrictions alongside a shift in drug use towards heroin. The third phase – since 2013 – has seen a shift towards synthetic opioids including fentanyl. This has also involved a significant increase in treatment services.</p>    <h5>What you should know about this data</h5>   <ul><li>These estimates come from the <a href="https://www.healthdata.org/">Global Burden of Disease</a> study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.<br></li><li>There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.</li></ul>    <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-drug-overdoses?facet=metric&country=OWID_WRL~USA" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe>     <p>Death rates from illicit drugs are highest in the United States. A large driver of this has been a steep rise in opioid deaths over the last decade.</p>   <p>In the chart, we see death rates in the United States from overdoses of different drugs. Since 2010, death rates from opioids have more than tripled.</p>   <p>In 2017, the US Department of Health and Human Services <a href="https://public3.pagefreezer.com/browse/HHS.gov/31-12-2020T08:51/https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2017/10/26/hhs-acting-secretary-declares-public-health-emergency-address-national-opioid-crisis.html">declared</a> the opioid crisis a public emergency.</p>    <h5>What you should know about this data</h5>   <ul><li>This data comes from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s <a href="https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates">WONDER programme</a>.</li><li>An overdose is taking a toxic (poisonous) quantity of a substance, regardless of whether it is a prescription, legal, or illegal drug. This can be intentional, but can also result from 'poisoning' where substances have been altered or mixed, such that the user is unaware of the drug's potency.</li><li>Death rates are measured as the number of people that die from overdoses per 100,000 people in the population. Unlike data from the IHME, these are ‘crude death rates’ that are not age-standardized.</li></ul>    <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/drug-overdose-death-rates" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe>     <p>Opioids are responsible for the largest number of overdose deaths globally.</p>   <p>Death rates from illicit drugs are the highest in the United States. This is largely the result of a steep rise in opioid deaths in recent years.</p>   <p>This chart shows death rates from opioid overdoses, measured as the number of deaths per 100,000 people in the population.{ref}Note that these figures are <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/age-standardization">age-standardized</a> (which means they assume a constant age structure of the population over time) whereas the previous key insight showed figures that were not age-standardized.{/ref}</p>   <p>This is not only the case for opioids: the US also has the highest death rate from <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-amphetamine">amphetamine</a> and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-cocaine">cocaine</a> overdoses.</p>     <p></p>     <h5>What you should know about this data</h5>   <ul><li>Death rates are measured as the number of people that die from overdoses per 100,000 people in the population. Since the age and structure of populations will differ between countries and will change over time, death rates have <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/age-standardization">been age-standardized</a>. This means they assume the structure of the population is the same across countries, and over time.</li><li>These estimates come from the <a href="https://www.healthdata.org/">Global Burden of Disease</a> study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.</li><li>There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.</li></ul>    <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-from-opioid-use" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe>     <p>It’s estimated that just under 1% of the world population had some form of drug dependency – excluding alcohol and tobacco.</p>   <p>This chart shows estimates of the share of the population with an addiction or dependency on any form of illicit drug.</p>   <p>As you can see, there are large differences in drug dependency across countries, with some – such as the United States and Canada – having several times the global average.</p>    <h5>What you should know about this data</h5>   <ul><li>These estimates come from the <a href="https://www.healthdata.org/">Global Burden of Disease</a> study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.<br></li><li>There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.<br></li><li>The IHME’s definition of a substance use disorder is based on the WHO’s <a href="https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases">International Classification of Diseases</a> (ICD). Substance use disorders include alcohol and all illicit drugs (whether prescribed or otherwise) including opioids, cocaine, amphetamine, and cannabis. They do not include smoking.<br></li><li>The data presented here is for illicit drug use only. It does not include alcohol, or smoking, which we cover separately in our pages on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption">Alcohol consumption</a> and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/smoking">Smoking</a>.<br></li><li>Illicit drugs include pharmaceutical drugs – such as heroin and other opioids and benzodiazepines; plant-based drugs – such as cocaine and cannabis; and synthetic drugs – such as amphetamines.</li></ul>    <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-with-drug-use-disorders?country=~OWID_WRL" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe>     <p>There are significant sex differences in the likelihood that someone develops an illicit drug dependency.</p>   <p>In the chart, we see the share of men that have a dependency on any type of illicit drug (on the y-axis) versus the share of women that do (on the x-axis). The grey line shows us where the rates in men and women would be equal. </p>   <p>Almost every country lies above the grey line. This means that drug use disorder rates are higher in men than they are in women in almost all countries in the world.</p>    <h5>What you should know about this data</h5>   <ul><li>These estimates come from the <a href="https://www.healthdata.org/">Global Burden of Disease</a> study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.<br></li><li>There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.<br></li><li>The IHME’s definition of a substance use disorder is based on the WHO’s <a href="https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases">International Classification of Diseases</a> (ICD). Substance use disorders include alcohol and all illicit drugs (whether prescribed or otherwise) including opioids, cocaine, amphetamine, and cannabis. They do not include smoking.<br></li><li>The data presented here is for illicit drug use only. It does not include alcohol, or smoking, which we cover separately in our pages on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption">Alcohol consumption</a> and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/smoking">Smoking</a>.<br></li><li>Illicit drugs include pharmaceutical drugs – such as heroin and other opioids and benzodiazepines; plant-based drugs – such as cocaine and cannabis; and synthetic drugs – such as amphetamines.</li></ul>    <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-drug-use-disorders-males-vs-females" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe>

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                                "text": "Illicit drugs include pharmaceutical drugs \u2013 such as heroin and other opioids and benzodiazepines; plant-based drugs \u2013 such as cocaine and cannabis; and synthetic drugs \u2013 such as amphetamines.",
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                        "text": "Most of these deaths are the result of opioid overdoses. Opioid deaths have risen steeply in recent years \u2013 most notably in the United States.",
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                        "text": "In their review, MacLean et al. (2021) provide a detailed analysis on the rise in opioid deaths.{ref}Maclean, J. C., Mallatt, J., Ruhm, C. J., & Simon, K. (2021). ",
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                        "text": "They describe the crisis as evolving in three phases, over several decades from the 1990s. The first phase involved an increase in the use of prescribed opioids as a result of lenient regulations on prescriptions and marketing by pharmaceuticals. The second phase involved a tightening of these restrictions alongside a shift in drug use towards heroin. The third phase \u2013 since 2013 \u2013 has seen a shift towards synthetic opioids including fentanyl. This has also involved a significant increase in treatment services.",
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                                "text": " study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.",
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                                "text": "There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.",
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                        "text": "In the chart, we see death rates in the United States from overdoses of different drugs. Since 2010, death rates from opioids have more than tripled.",
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                        "text": " (which means they assume a constant age structure of the population over time) whereas the previous key insight showed figures that were not age-standardized.{/ref}",
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                                "text": " study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.",
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                                "text": "There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.",
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                        "text": "It\u2019s estimated that just under 1% of the world population had some form of drug dependency \u2013 excluding alcohol and tobacco.",
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                                "text": " (ICD). Substance use disorders include alcohol and all illicit drugs (whether prescribed or otherwise) including opioids, cocaine, amphetamine, and cannabis. They do not include smoking.",
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                                "text": "Illicit drugs include pharmaceutical drugs \u2013 such as heroin and other opioids and benzodiazepines; plant-based drugs \u2013 such as cocaine and cannabis; and synthetic drugs \u2013 such as amphetamines.",
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                        "text": "In the chart, we see the share of men that have a dependency on any type of illicit drug (on the y-axis) versus the share of women that do (on the x-axis). The grey line shows us where the rates in men and women would be equal.\u00a0",
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        "title": "Opioids, Cocaine, Cannabis, and Other Illicit Drugs",
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2022-06-26 07:00:00

2024-03-05 09:19:02

[
    "Hannah Ritchie",
    "Pablo Arriagada",
    "Max Roser"
]

How common is the use and addiction to opioids, cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis? What is the impact?

2019-12-09 16:42:28

2024-01-12 13:47:55

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Illicit drugs are drugs that have been prohibited under international drug control treaties.{ref}Babor, Caulkins, and Edwards (2010) – Drug policy and the public good. Oxford University Press.{/ref} International statistics typically focus on four different groups of illicit drugs: opioids, cocaine, cannabis, and amphetamines. However, a range of other illicit drugs is included in international drug control treaties, including plant-based drugs and synthetic hallucinogens. The UNODC's publication "Terminology and Information on Drugs"{ref}United Nations International Drug Control Programme. Laboratory Section. (2016). [_Terminology and information on drugs: third edition_](https://www.unodc.org/documents/scientific/Terminology_and_Information_on_Drugs-E_3rd_edition.pdf). United Nations Publications.{/ref} contains a comprehensive list of illicit drugs. Excess consumption or dependency on illicit drugs can impact overall health, mental well-being, and in many cases, the well-being of others. Not all illicit drugs have similar impacts on health and well-being: some cause much less harm than others. On this page, you can find a list of key insights as well as a list of visualizations on illicit drug use. This provides a global overview of illicit drug use, dependency disorders, and some of their impacts. Related topics * [Smoking](https://ourworldindata.org/smoking) * [Mental Health](http://ourworldindata.org/mental-health) * [Alcohol Consumption](http://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption) People can die from illicit drug use in several ways. The first is that the use of illicit drugs at any point in someone’s life can act as an indirect risk factor for premature death from disease or injury. The second is that illicit drugs can result in direct deaths from drug dependency and overdoses. The chart shows us that hundreds of thousands die indirectly or directly from illicit drug use each year. ## What you should know about this data * These estimates come from the [Global Burden of Disease](https://www.healthdata.org/) study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders. * There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures. * The IHME’s definition of a substance use disorder is based on the WHO’s [International Classification of Diseases](https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases) (ICD). Substance use disorders include alcohol and all illicit drugs (whether prescribed or otherwise) including opioids, cocaine, amphetamine, and cannabis. They do not include smoking. * The data presented here is for illicit drug use only. It does not include alcohol, or smoking, which we cover separately in our pages on [Alcohol consumption](https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption) and [Smoking](https://ourworldindata.org/smoking). * Illicit drugs include pharmaceutical drugs – such as heroin and other opioids and benzodiazepines; plant-based drugs – such as cocaine and cannabis; and synthetic drugs – such as amphetamines. <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-illicit-drugs"/> An overdose is taking a toxic (poisonous) quantity of a substance, regardless of whether it is a prescription, legal, or illegal drug. This can be intentional, but can also result from 'poisoning' where substances have been altered or mixed, such that the user is unaware of the drug's potency. Globally, more than 100,000 people die from drug overdoses every year. Most of these deaths are the result of opioid overdoses. Opioid deaths have risen steeply in recent years – most notably in the United States. Opioids are used in prescription drugs and pain-relievers – such as OxyContin and Vicodin – in synthetic opioids such as fentanyl; or drugs such as heroin. In their review, MacLean et al. (2021) provide a detailed analysis on the rise in opioid deaths.{ref}Maclean, J. C., Mallatt, J., Ruhm, C. J., & Simon, K. (2021). [Economic studies on the opioid crisis: A review](https://www.nber.org/papers/w28067). _National Bureau of Economic Research_.{/ref} They describe the crisis as evolving in three phases, over several decades from the 1990s. The first phase involved an increase in the use of prescribed opioids as a result of lenient regulations on prescriptions and marketing by pharmaceuticals. The second phase involved a tightening of these restrictions alongside a shift in drug use towards heroin. The third phase – since 2013 – has seen a shift towards synthetic opioids including fentanyl. This has also involved a significant increase in treatment services. ## What you should know about this data * These estimates come from the [Global Burden of Disease](https://www.healthdata.org/) study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders. * There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures. <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-drug-overdoses?facet=metric&country=OWID_WRL~USA"/> Death rates from illicit drugs are highest in the United States. A large driver of this has been a steep rise in opioid deaths over the last decade. In the chart, we see death rates in the United States from overdoses of different drugs. Since 2010, death rates from opioids have more than tripled. In 2017, the US Department of Health and Human Services [declared](https://public3.pagefreezer.com/browse/HHS.gov/31-12-2020T08:51/https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2017/10/26/hhs-acting-secretary-declares-public-health-emergency-address-national-opioid-crisis.html) the opioid crisis a public emergency. ## What you should know about this data * This data comes from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s [WONDER programme](https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates). * An overdose is taking a toxic (poisonous) quantity of a substance, regardless of whether it is a prescription, legal, or illegal drug. This can be intentional, but can also result from 'poisoning' where substances have been altered or mixed, such that the user is unaware of the drug's potency. * Death rates are measured as the number of people that die from overdoses per 100,000 people in the population. Unlike data from the IHME, these are ‘crude death rates’ that are not age-standardized. <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/drug-overdose-death-rates"/> Opioids are responsible for the largest number of overdose deaths globally. Death rates from illicit drugs are the highest in the United States. This is largely the result of a steep rise in opioid deaths in recent years. This chart shows death rates from opioid overdoses, measured as the number of deaths per 100,000 people in the population.{ref}Note that these figures are [age-standardized](https://ourworldindata.org/age-standardization) (which means they assume a constant age structure of the population over time) whereas the previous key insight showed figures that were not age-standardized.{/ref} This is not only the case for opioids: the US also has the highest death rate from [amphetamine](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-amphetamine) and [cocaine](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-cocaine) overdoses. ### https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-amphetamine ### https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-cocaine ## What you should know about this data * Death rates are measured as the number of people that die from overdoses per 100,000 people in the population. Since the age and structure of populations will differ between countries and will change over time, death rates have [been age-standardized](https://ourworldindata.org/age-standardization). This means they assume the structure of the population is the same across countries, and over time. * These estimates come from the [Global Burden of Disease](https://www.healthdata.org/) study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders. * There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures. <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-from-opioid-use"/> It’s estimated that just under 1% of the world population had some form of drug dependency – excluding alcohol and tobacco. This chart shows estimates of the share of the population with an addiction or dependency on any form of illicit drug. As you can see, there are large differences in drug dependency across countries, with some – such as the United States and Canada – having several times the global average. ## What you should know about this data * These estimates come from the [Global Burden of Disease](https://www.healthdata.org/) study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders. * There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures. * The IHME’s definition of a substance use disorder is based on the WHO’s [International Classification of Diseases](https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases) (ICD). Substance use disorders include alcohol and all illicit drugs (whether prescribed or otherwise) including opioids, cocaine, amphetamine, and cannabis. They do not include smoking. * The data presented here is for illicit drug use only. It does not include alcohol, or smoking, which we cover separately in our pages on [Alcohol consumption](https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption) and [Smoking](https://ourworldindata.org/smoking). * Illicit drugs include pharmaceutical drugs – such as heroin and other opioids and benzodiazepines; plant-based drugs – such as cocaine and cannabis; and synthetic drugs – such as amphetamines. <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-with-drug-use-disorders?country=~OWID_WRL"/> There are significant sex differences in the likelihood that someone develops an illicit drug dependency. In the chart, we see the share of men that have a dependency on any type of illicit drug (on the y-axis) versus the share of women that do (on the x-axis). The grey line shows us where the rates in men and women would be equal. Almost every country lies above the grey line. This means that drug use disorder rates are higher in men than they are in women in almost all countries in the world. ## What you should know about this data * These estimates come from the [Global Burden of Disease](https://www.healthdata.org/) study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders. * There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures. * The IHME’s definition of a substance use disorder is based on the WHO’s [International Classification of Diseases](https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases) (ICD). Substance use disorders include alcohol and all illicit drugs (whether prescribed or otherwise) including opioids, cocaine, amphetamine, and cannabis. They do not include smoking. * The data presented here is for illicit drug use only. It does not include alcohol, or smoking, which we cover separately in our pages on [Alcohol consumption](https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption) and [Smoking](https://ourworldindata.org/smoking). * Illicit drugs include pharmaceutical drugs – such as heroin and other opioids and benzodiazepines; plant-based drugs – such as cocaine and cannabis; and synthetic drugs – such as amphetamines. <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-drug-use-disorders-males-vs-females"/>

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Oxford University Press.{/ref}&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>International statistics typically focus on four different groups of illicit drugs: opioids, cocaine, cannabis, and amphetamines. However, a range of other illicit drugs is included in international drug control treaties, including plant-based drugs and synthetic hallucinogens. The UNODC&#8217;s publication &#8220;Terminology and Information on Drugs&#8221;{ref}United Nations International Drug Control Programme. Laboratory Section. (2016). <a href=\"https://www.unodc.org/documents/scientific/Terminology_and_Information_on_Drugs-E_3rd_edition.pdf\"><em>Terminology and information on drugs: third edition</em></a>. United Nations Publications.{/ref} contains a comprehensive list of illicit drugs.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Excess consumption or dependency on illicit drugs can impact overall health, mental well-being, and in many cases, the well-being of others. Not all illicit drugs have similar impacts on health and well-being: some cause much less harm than others.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>On this page, you can find a list of key insights as well as a list of visualizations on illicit drug use. This provides a global overview of illicit drug use, dependency disorders, and some of their impacts.</p>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<div class=\"wp-container-65e6e27b08a1c wp-block-group related-topics\">\n<p>Related topics</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/smoking\">Smoking</a></li><li><a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/mental-health\">Mental Health</a></li><li><a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption\">Alcohol Consumption</a></li></ul>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n\t<block type=\"key-insights\">\n\t\t<title>Key insights on Illicit drug use</title>\n        <slug>key-insights-on-illicit-drug-use</slug>\n        <insights>\n\t<block type=\"key-insight\">\n\t\t<title is-hidden=\"0\">People can die directly or indirectly from drug use</title>\n        <slug>people-can-die-directly-or-indirectly-from-drug-use</slug>\n        <content>\n\n<p>People can die from illicit drug use in several ways.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first is that the use of illicit drugs at any point in someone\u2019s life can act as an indirect risk factor for premature death from disease or injury.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second is that illicit drugs can result in direct deaths from drug dependency and overdoses.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The chart shows us that hundreds of thousands die indirectly or directly from illicit drug use each year.</p>\n\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-technical-text\">\n\t\t\n\n<h5>What you should know about this data</h5>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>These estimates come from the <a href=\"https://www.healthdata.org/\">Global Burden of Disease</a> study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.<br></li><li>There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.<br></li><li>The IHME\u2019s definition of a substance use disorder is based on the WHO\u2019s <a href=\"https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases\">International Classification of Diseases</a> (ICD). Substance use disorders include alcohol and all illicit drugs (whether prescribed or otherwise) including opioids, cocaine, amphetamine, and cannabis. They do not include smoking.<br></li><li>The data presented here is for illicit drug use only. It does not include alcohol, or smoking, which we cover separately in our pages on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption\">Alcohol consumption</a> and <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/smoking\">Smoking</a>.<br></li><li>Illicit drugs include pharmaceutical drugs \u2013 such as heroin and other opioids and benzodiazepines; plant-based drugs \u2013 such as cocaine and cannabis; and synthetic drugs \u2013 such as amphetamines.</li></ul>\n\n\n\t</div>\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-illicit-drugs\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n\n</content>\n\t</block>\n\n\t<block type=\"key-insight\">\n\t\t<title is-hidden=\"0\">Opioids were responsible for the largest number of drug deaths</title>\n        <slug>opioids-were-responsible-for-the-largest-number-of-drug-overdoses</slug>\n        <content>\n\n<p>An overdose is taking a toxic (poisonous) quantity of a substance, regardless of whether it is a prescription, legal, or illegal drug. This can be intentional, but can also result from &#8216;poisoning&#8217; where substances have been altered or mixed, such that the user is unaware of the drug&#8217;s potency.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Globally, more than 100,000 people die from drug overdoses every year.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of these deaths are the result of opioid overdoses. Opioid deaths have risen steeply in recent years \u2013 most notably in the United States.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Opioids are used in prescription drugs and pain-relievers \u2013 such as OxyContin and Vicodin \u2013 in synthetic opioids such as fentanyl; or drugs such as heroin.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In their review, MacLean et al. (2021) provide a detailed analysis on the rise in opioid deaths.{ref}Maclean, J. C., Mallatt, J., Ruhm, C. J., &amp; Simon, K. (2021). <a href=\"https://www.nber.org/papers/w28067\">Economic studies on the opioid crisis: A review</a>. <em>National Bureau of Economic Research</em>.{/ref} </p>\n\n\n\n<p>They describe the crisis as evolving in three phases, over several decades from the 1990s. The first phase involved an increase in the use of prescribed opioids as a result of lenient regulations on prescriptions and marketing by pharmaceuticals. The second phase involved a tightening of these restrictions alongside a shift in drug use towards heroin. The third phase \u2013 since 2013 \u2013 has seen a shift towards synthetic opioids including fentanyl. This has also involved a significant increase in treatment services.</p>\n\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-technical-text\">\n\t\t\n\n<h5>What you should know about this data</h5>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>These estimates come from the <a href=\"https://www.healthdata.org/\">Global Burden of Disease</a> study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.<br></li><li>There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.</li></ul>\n\n\n\t</div>\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-drug-overdoses?facet=metric&amp;country=OWID_WRL~USA\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n\n</content>\n\t</block>\n\n\t<block type=\"key-insight\">\n\t\t<title is-hidden=\"0\">Opioid deaths in the US have risen steeply in recent years</title>\n        <slug>opioid-deaths-in-the-us-have-risen-steeply-in-recent-years</slug>\n        <content>\n\n<p>Death rates from illicit drugs are highest in the United States. A large driver of this has been a steep rise in opioid deaths over the last decade.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the chart, we see death rates in the United States from overdoses of different drugs. Since 2010, death rates from opioids have more than tripled.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2017, the US Department of Health and Human Services <a href=\"https://public3.pagefreezer.com/browse/HHS.gov/31-12-2020T08:51/https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2017/10/26/hhs-acting-secretary-declares-public-health-emergency-address-national-opioid-crisis.html\">declared</a> the opioid crisis a public emergency.</p>\n\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-technical-text\">\n\t\t\n\n<h5>What you should know about this data</h5>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>This data comes from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s <a href=\"https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates\">WONDER programme</a>.</li><li>An overdose is taking a toxic (poisonous) quantity of a substance, regardless of whether it is a prescription, legal, or illegal drug. This can be intentional, but can also result from &#8216;poisoning&#8217; where substances have been altered or mixed, such that the user is unaware of the drug&#8217;s potency.</li><li>Death rates are measured as the number of people that die from overdoses per 100,000 people in the population. Unlike data from the IHME, these are \u2018crude death rates\u2019 that are not age-standardized.</li></ul>\n\n\n\t</div>\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/drug-overdose-death-rates\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n\n</content>\n\t</block>\n\n\t<block type=\"key-insight\">\n\t\t<title is-hidden=\"0\">The US has the highest death rates from opioids and illicit drugs</title>\n        <slug>the-us-has-the-highest-death-rates-from-opioids-and-illicit-drugs</slug>\n        <content>\n\n<p>Opioids are responsible for the largest number of overdose deaths globally.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Death rates from illicit drugs are the highest in the United States. This is largely the result of a steep rise in opioid deaths in recent years.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This chart shows death rates from opioid overdoses, measured as the number of deaths per 100,000 people in the population.{ref}Note that these figures are <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/age-standardization\">age-standardized</a> (which means they assume a constant age structure of the population over time) whereas the previous key insight showed figures that were not age-standardized.{/ref}</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is not only the case for opioids: the US also has the highest death rate from <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-amphetamine\">amphetamine</a> and <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-cocaine\">cocaine</a> overdoses.</p>\n\n\n    <block type=\"prominent-link\" style=\"is-style-thin\">\n        <link-url>https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-amphetamine</link-url>\n        <title></title>\n        <content></content>\n        <figure></figure>\n    </block>\n\n    <block type=\"prominent-link\" style=\"is-style-thin\">\n        <link-url>https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-cocaine</link-url>\n        <title></title>\n        <content>\n\n<p></p>\n\n</content>\n        <figure></figure>\n    </block>\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-technical-text\">\n\t\t\n\n<h5>What you should know about this data</h5>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Death rates are measured as the number of people that die from overdoses per 100,000 people in the population. Since the age and structure of populations will differ between countries and will change over time, death rates have <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/age-standardization\">been age-standardized</a>. This means they assume the structure of the population is the same across countries, and over time.</li><li>These estimates come from the <a href=\"https://www.healthdata.org/\">Global Burden of Disease</a> study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.</li><li>There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.</li></ul>\n\n\n\t</div>\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-from-opioid-use\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n\n</content>\n\t</block>\n\n\t<block type=\"key-insight\">\n\t\t<title is-hidden=\"0\">Just under 1% of the world has an illicit drug dependency</title>\n        <slug>just-under-1-of-the-world-has-an-illicit-drug-dependency</slug>\n        <content>\n\n<p>It\u2019s estimated that just under 1% of the world population had some form of drug dependency \u2013 excluding alcohol and tobacco.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This chart shows estimates of the share of the population with an addiction or dependency on any form of illicit drug.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As you can see, there are large differences in drug dependency across countries, with some \u2013 such as the United States and Canada \u2013 having several times the global average.</p>\n\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-technical-text\">\n\t\t\n\n<h5>What you should know about this data</h5>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>These estimates come from the <a href=\"https://www.healthdata.org/\">Global Burden of Disease</a> study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.<br></li><li>There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.<br></li><li>The IHME\u2019s definition of a substance use disorder is based on the WHO\u2019s <a href=\"https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases\">International Classification of Diseases</a> (ICD). Substance use disorders include alcohol and all illicit drugs (whether prescribed or otherwise) including opioids, cocaine, amphetamine, and cannabis. They do not include smoking.<br></li><li>The data presented here is for illicit drug use only. It does not include alcohol, or smoking, which we cover separately in our pages on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption\">Alcohol consumption</a> and <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/smoking\">Smoking</a>.<br></li><li>Illicit drugs include pharmaceutical drugs \u2013 such as heroin and other opioids and benzodiazepines; plant-based drugs \u2013 such as cocaine and cannabis; and synthetic drugs \u2013 such as amphetamines.</li></ul>\n\n\n\t</div>\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-with-drug-use-disorders?country=~OWID_WRL\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n\n</content>\n\t</block>\n\n\t<block type=\"key-insight\">\n\t\t<title is-hidden=\"0\">Men are more likely to have a drug dependency</title>\n        <slug>men-are-more-likely-to-have-a-drug-dependency</slug>\n        <content>\n\n<p>There are significant sex differences in the likelihood that someone develops an illicit drug dependency.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the chart, we see the share of men that have a dependency on any type of illicit drug (on the y-axis) versus the share of women that do (on the x-axis). The grey line shows us where the rates in men and women would be equal.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Almost every country lies above the grey line. This means that drug use disorder rates are higher in men than they are in women in almost all countries in the world.</p>\n\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-owid-technical-text\">\n\t\t\n\n<h5>What you should know about this data</h5>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>These estimates come from the <a href=\"https://www.healthdata.org/\">Global Burden of Disease</a> study published annually by the Institute for Health Metrics (IHME). This is currently one of the few sources that produces global-level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of substance use disorders.<br></li><li>There are large differences in the quality and availability of data across the world. While high-quality data in richer countries often exists, data on illicit drug use in poorer countries is often limited. The IHME Global Burden of Disease attempts to fill these gaps, but these estimates come with a high level of uncertainty. This is therefore also true for all global figures.<br></li><li>The IHME\u2019s definition of a substance use disorder is based on the WHO\u2019s <a href=\"https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases\">International Classification of Diseases</a> (ICD). Substance use disorders include alcohol and all illicit drugs (whether prescribed or otherwise) including opioids, cocaine, amphetamine, and cannabis. They do not include smoking.<br></li><li>The data presented here is for illicit drug use only. It does not include alcohol, or smoking, which we cover separately in our pages on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption\">Alcohol consumption</a> and <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/smoking\">Smoking</a>.<br></li><li>Illicit drugs include pharmaceutical drugs \u2013 such as heroin and other opioids and benzodiazepines; plant-based drugs \u2013 such as cocaine and cannabis; and synthetic drugs \u2013 such as amphetamines.</li></ul>\n\n\n\t</div>\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-drug-use-disorders-males-vs-females\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n\n</content>\n\t</block>\n</insights>\n\t</block>\n\n\t<block type=\"all-charts\"></block>",
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    "excerpt": {
        "rendered": "How common is the use and addiction to opioids, cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis? What is the impact?",
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    "date_gmt": "2022-06-26T07:00:00",
    "modified": "2024-01-12T13:47:55",
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    "menu_order": 312,
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    "authors_name": [
        "Hannah Ritchie",
        "Pablo Arriagada",
        "Max Roser"
    ],
    "modified_gmt": "2024-01-12T13:47:55",
    "comment_status": "closed",
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