GENEVA

The global number of drug users has increased by nearly a quarter within a decade, according to a UN report.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna also expressed concern about the spread of synthetic drugs and trouble spots such as Ukraine and Afghanistan in its annual report released Sunday.

In 2011-2021, the estimated number of people turning to drugs rose from 240 million to 296 million -- a rise of 23%.

According to the UN agency, only about half of this increase is due to growth in the global population. The number of people with drug addictions or diseases increased by 45% to 39.5 million during that period.

The UNODC warned about the proliferation of chemical drugs such as methamphetamine, amphetamine, fentanyl, and also the many newly developed substances on the market. "The production of synthetic drugs is cheap, easy, and fast," it said.

This highly flexible sector of the narcotics business is more difficult for authorities to track down because, unlike cocaine and heroin, for example, it is not tied to specific growing areas and growth cycles.

UNODC is therefore monitoring the situation in Ukraine in particular, where 79 amphetamine laboratories, the highest number in the world, had been shut down by authorities in the year before the war began.

Since the Russian invasion in early 2022, the number of synthetic drug seizures in Ukraine has increased, while the market for such substances in neighboring countries has grown, UNODC Chief Analyst Angela Me reported. "This is a danger that we see as a consequence of the war," she said.

In Afghanistan, UNODC has observed signs of a decline in opium production under Taliban rule. However, UN drug experts pointed out that Afghanistan is not only the world's top exporter of opium, a heroin commodity, but has also become a major producer of methamphetamine.

The UN drug watchdogs are also concerned about the continued growth of the cocaine market. "In the global cocaine market, we are seeing a spiral where demand leads to more supply, and supply leads to more demand," Me said. A record 2,300 metric tons of cocaine was produced in 2021, he said.

However, opioids -- natural opiates and their artificial variants -- and cannabis continue to account for most cases of addiction and disease, according to UNODC. Nearly 70% of the 128,000 drug deaths in 2019 had used opioids, the report said.