Global trends: Reviewing 25 years of the United Nations World Drug Report

Toby Seddon

Chapter 17 in Research Handbook on Drugs and Society, 2026, pp 207-217 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: In 1997, the United Nations published its first World Drug Report, providing an overview of the global drug situation, and this has since become an annual publication. This chapter reviews the last 25 years of these reports, to provide a picture of global trends in drug supply and demand in the first quarter of the twenty-first century. The ‘big picture’ is of (i) a steady increase in the size of the global market and in the number of drug consumers, (ii) some variations in supply chains and patterns of demand but without affecting overall trends, (iii) a diversification of product ranges and growth in online retail markets. It is concluded that these reports provide a strong basis for arguing that international drug policy has largely failed to control the world drug trade and that it is time to look for alternative approaches.

Keywords: Supply; Demand; New psychoactive substances (NPS); Prevalence; Markets; United Nations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781802209136
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