UNODC Special Event: Presentation of the 2026 World Drug Report

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. So I am Xiao Hongli, representative of New York Liaison Office of UN Office on Drugs and Crime, also referred to UNODC. I will moderate today's special event on the presentation for the UNODC's 2026 World Drug Report. So it's my pleasure on behalf of UNODC to welcome you all to attend this meeting. Each year, each year on 26th June, the international community marks the International Day Against Drug Use and Illicit Trafficking, also World Drug Day, reaffirming the international community's collective commitment to addressing the world drug problem in all its dimensions. As United Nations Secretary-General Mr. Guterres mentioned today, illicit drug trafficking is not a victimless crime. It inflicts profound harm on people and the community across the world while fueling violence, crime and instability. The proliferation of synthetic drugs and the growth of online trafficking networks are compounding this crisis. At the same time, fragile system— health systems, persistent treatment gaps, and also limited access to support are undermining efforts to reduce stigma and address Drug Use Disorders. In line with UODC 2026 campaign theme, World Drug Problem: Persisting Issues, New Challenges, Innovative Responses. So this year's special event emphasizes that global drug use and the number of drugs have been continuously increasing over the past decades. Illicit drug markets have been adapting. Organized crime has been seeking out technological innovation and looking to exploit the gaps in governance and regulations to ensure that substances reach their users and to boost their billion-dollar business. So in response to these challenges, this year's campaign will showcase how the international community, national and local governments, civil society, and the public work together on innovative responses to reduce demand for and supply of illicit drugs and thus mitigate threats. The 2026 edition of the UODC World Drug Report is the most comprehensive and authoritative Assessment of the World Drug Problem— I'm very proud of it— provides the international community with a vital source of evidence on drug production, trafficking, and consumption trends, and also their impact on health, crime, security, and the communities. So now, without further ado, it's my pleasure to give the floor to my colleague, Ms. Chloe Capenti, Chief of the Research and Knowledge Production Section at the Research and Trend Analysis Branch of UNODC, for a presentation of the main findings and special points of interest of the 2026 World Drug Report. She will attend us from Vienna. Hello, Chloe. Good evening.

Hello, Xiaowen.

Yeah.

Good afternoon. Yeah, good evening.

Thank you for being with us at so late in Vienna. The floor is yours, Chloe.

Thank you, Xiaowen. Good afternoon, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. I'm going to share my presentation. Yes, can you see it?

Yes, now I can see it.

Okay, so I will provide you today with a sort of flavor of what is in the World Drug Report. Of course, these are only some of the main findings, and there is much more. So, ah, it doesn't work. I'm sorry, it doesn't work. I cannot— I'm sorry, I cannot move the slides. Perhaps someone can move them?

Yes, Chloe, our colleagues in New York LINZ office can support you to play the slides if you wish.

We tested before and I could move the slide, but now I cannot move the slide. Ah, yes, I managed.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, sorry, sorry. I hope it will, it will work. No, it doesn't work anymore. Ah, wait. Yes, okay, it works. So, sorry, sorry. So we estimate that 1 in 15 people worldwide are using drugs. This is about 331 million people who are using drugs.

Why?

Because there is an increase in drug use but also because we have better data and because of population growth. I'm sorry, I forgot to mention that there is an increase of 34% in the last 10 years. Now, most of these people are using cannabis, followed by opioid. Adolescence continues to be a critical period when the brain is developing, and we see that Drug use in adolescence can lead to long-lasting effects on connection behaviors and also emotions. Yet this is a period when drug use is often initiated, and the earlier the initiation, the higher the risk, actually. And as you can see here, you see that the level of drug use among adolescents is high. Actually, it's comparable to the levels among adults. However, in some high-income countries, and also much wider in European countries, we see now since a few years a decrease in the use of cannabis among adolescents. So it's not very clear why we see this decrease. There are many reasons that have been brought forward. One of them is that, of course, cannabis now is in competition with a lot of other drugs, other products on the market. Also, the fact that young people are spending much more time online, whether on social apps or gaming, and there is less contact, peer-to-peer contact, in the evening. And at the same time, we see also that these adolescents in these countries are more and more reporting that they think that cannabis use is harmful, whatever type of cannabis use, whether regular but also non-regular cannabis use. So this may be also a factor in the decrease in the use of cannabis among adolescents. We continue to estimate that about 3 times more men than women use drugs globally. This may vary depending on the regions. Men start using drugs when they're younger, but women progress towards dependence much faster. And actually, the motivations for starting using drugs differ between the two sexes. So in men, it's much more about peer pressure and sensation seeking, whereas in women, they report more, more self-medication of pain and self-medication of mental health issues. There are also many more men who inject drugs than women, but when women inject drugs, they are 20% more likely to be living with HIV. And altogether, actually, women suffer much higher burden of health and social consequences of drug use than men. They are much more affected by stigma, by moral judgment, and they have also much less access to treatment. Not everyone who is using a drug will end up being dependent on drugs or suffering from drug use disorders, but some do. And actually, we estimate that 63 million people are suffering from drug use disorders in 2024, and 8% of them, 1 in 12, only have access to some form of treatment, even limited treatment. And you see here that this proportion is much lower in women, at least, at least, is twice less lower in, twice less, yeah, is twice lower, sorry, in women than in men. 1 in 23, as compared to 1 in 9 in men suffering from drug use disorders, are in treatment. We estimate that 14 million people are injecting drugs worldwide. 1 in 8 of these persons are living with HIV, and there are some sub-regions which are much more affected by HIV among people who inject drugs: Southern Africa, Southwest Asia, and Eastern Europe. And half of— more or less half of these people who are injecting drugs are living with hepatitis C. And actually, injecting drug use continues to be a significant driver of the global hepatitis C epidemic. And if you look at the graph on the right, on the right corner down, this is about drug-related death. We had about half a million deaths in 2023, the last year for which we have data. And two-thirds of these deaths were actually related to infectious diseases. Most of them were related to cirrhosis or other liver infections resulting from hepatitis C. And one-third of these deaths, which was actually 172,000 in 2023, were the result of overdoses, and mostly opioid overdoses. So this year in the Rodolphe Report, we, we produced a thematic chapter which focused on the issue of the impact of drug use on safety and security. And we showed that drug use can be associated with acquisitive with crime, with violence, and also violence in the families and also in the community, and also with victimization by people who use drugs, but also of people who use drugs. But what is very important to highlight is that this association is not deterministic. What I mean is that not everyone who is using drugs will end up being the victim or being the perpetrator of crime or violence. Actually, it depends a lot on individual factors, for example, the context of drug use, the type of drug that is used, the patterns of use, but also the personal situation, whether people are in situation of poverty, homelessness, and whether they are suffering from mental health issues. And it's also— it also mediated this relationship by contextual social and policy factors or environments, for example, whether we are in an environment that is ridden by violence, whether there is a lot of stigma, whether there is access or not to social care, healthcare, for people living in the, in the community and also for people with drug use disorders. And I think what is important to highlight is that the worst safety and security outcomes can be avoided when there is sufficient availability of health and social care interventions, including of course evidence-based drug treatment, but also when there are interventions that are addressing the underlying social determinants of health and other contextual factors. As you may know, Afghanistan has been lost for long the main source of opiates worldwide until 2023. In 2022, the Afghan government started to enforce a ban on drug production, which resulted in 2023 in a 95% decrease, so a drastic decline in opium production in Afghanistan. And this has created a global supply shock. So there are a few other countries that have increased a bit their production in the meantime, but not to the level to fill the gap left by Afghanistan. We estimate that the stocks of opiates from Afghanistan will last until the end of this year, and we expect to see in 2027 a major shortage of opiates in the markets. In the destination markets for Afghan opiates, whether in the region or whether further away in Western and Central Europe. We also, we already see some early signs of shortages of these opiates with increases in prices also in the region and a bit further away. But I think the major concern now is whether these opiates will be substituted on the market by synthetic opiates. So I'm referring here to fentanyls, to methazines, and to orphans, which can be more harmful than heroin or opium. And we have seen, for example, an increase in seizures of methazines in Western and Central Europe, which is a major market for Afghan opiates, and also hundreds of deaths since the end of 2022 in that subregion. The two opioid crises which are affecting the world nowadays continue. So there is first the crisis that revolves around the use of fentanyl in North America, which has been responsible for about just under 1 million deaths since the beginning of the century. But it seems that it could have peaked. Because in 2024, for the first time, we have seen a decline in the number of deaths linked to synthetic opioids, so fentanyl, in both the United States and Canada. Of course, we will need to monitor and to see whether this is sustained, but this is already very good news. There is also the crisis affecting some sub-regions in Africa. Around the non-medical use of Tramadol. This is not the medical-grade Tramadol we are talking here, but a falsified Tramadol, which can— content can be twice more psychoactive, actually, than the Tramadol in the medical supply chain. But what may really completely change landscape of the synthetic opioid market is the arrival on the market of the methazines and the orphans that I've just mentioned. In the case of the Afghan opiate markets, and which can be— some of them are more potent than fentanyl, actually. They have already resulted in a number of acute emergencies and also fatal overdoses, and in a much more diverse set of countries and regions, that just some regions of Africa and North America. Meanwhile, the availability of pharmaceutical opioids for pain management and palliative care remains extremely low in most low- and middle-income countries. And this is despite progress in the past decade, but progress from extremely low levels. So we are still at very low levels.. And in contrast, in some higher-income countries, availability of this pharmaceutical opioids may actually outstrip the actual need. The barriers— there are many barriers that persist to access these pharmaceutical drugs. The three main I would like to mention is, of course, a problem of cost and sourcing. But beyond that, there is also a lack of training of some healthcare professionals in many countries, and this is also a fear of addiction. And this is also the result of what happened in the United States and Canada with the opioid crisis, which started basically with aggressive marketing and the overprescription of pharmaceutical opioids. Beyond cancer treatment and palliative care. The cocaine market continues to expand in terms of production. So we see that the latest available data for 2024 show a manufacture of the drug that is nearly 5 times higher than 10 years ago. So a massive increase due to an increase in the area and the cultivation, but also an increase in productivity. And we see a lot of changes also in terms of the trafficking of cocaine, in particular, for example, trafficking to Western and Central Europe. So Western and Central Europe is the second largest market for cocaine after North America. And before South America. And we see there that there has been a shift in 2024. It is very clear in the figures, a shift from using the large ports on the North Sea in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany towards a shift towards smaller ports in France, Portugal, and Spain, where interdiction may be, may be less actually, where the risk of interdiction may be, may be lower for the traffickers. We also see that there's a lot of interdiction at source. Nearly two-thirds of the seizures of cocaine globally are actually reported from South America. So a lot is already being stopped there. We also see that the market for cocaine in the different markets, in the established markets I just mentioned, but also elsewhere, is expanding. There are more harmful patterns of use that are developing. For example, in Western and Central Europe, the use of crack cocaine in some subgroups of population that were not affected before. And also, for example, in West Africa, which has been used since 2019 as a transit area for the cocaine coming from South America to Western and Central Europe., and where a market has developed as a spillover, basically. But now we see crack cocaine there, so this is not exactly a good, a good development. And there are also signs of emerging markets for cocaine elsewhere in Africa and also in Asia. The market for methamphetamine is also expanding beyond the traditional markets of North America, East and Southeast Asia, and also in Oceania, mostly Australia and New Zealand. So now the drug is being found in all regions. I mean, in Western and Central Europe, in Africa, in different sub-regions of Africa, and for example, in the Middle East and Southwest Asia. So really, the drug is reaching global ubiquity. Captagon. So Captagon is an illicitly manufactured drug which contains amphetamine, which market grew with the conflict in Syria. It was used on the battlefield, but it also found a large market in the Gulf countries. It was manufactured mainly in Syria, but also across the borders, for example in Lebanon. And what we see now is a disruption of that manufacture with the end of the conflict and also with a change of government at the end of 2024. Big labs, big laboratories have been dismantled by the Syrian authorities, also storage facilities, and the very high peak of seizures of Captagon in last year. Suggesting that actually the traffickers are trying to liquidate the stockpiles of Captagon. It was manufactured before the end of the, of the conflict. What we see at the same time in the Middle East is that the market for methamphetamine is becoming more entrenched than it was before. We see an uptick in the demand and the supply for methamphetamine in the region of the Middle East. And actually, in some population groups, we see a potential shift from the use of Captagon, which is an amphetamine, to methamphetamine, knowing that the two substances are both amphetamine-type stimulants and they have quite similar effect on the central nervous system. Ketamine is also in expansion. So what is ketamine? Ketamine is a pharmaceutical drug. Which is not under international control and which is mostly used in anesthesia, but not only, in a large set of countries. Now, the drug was illicitly manufactured, so it was falsified methamphetamine, which was for long an issue in East and Southeast Asia, for decades, I would say. What we see now is that the use and the manufacture of the drug is increasing there again after a decline, but we also see that but in a much broader set of sub-regions and countries, there is trafficking of ketamine. So the ketamine that is trafficked elsewhere is not always illicitly manufactured. For example, in Western Central Europe, there is also diversion of medical— of ketamine— sorry, ketamine from the medical supply chain that is diverted at some point during importation. This is a market where use is really increasing, especially among young people, and to the point that basically some cities have set up specialized ketamine clinics to treat the urological complications that regular users of ketamine will basically experience, will suffer from. So this is to this point. New traffickers continue to innovate. We see in 2024 a record high of new psychoactive substances on the global market. There were 755 different new psychoactive substances. So what are these NPS? NPS are substances that are not under international control, but which may pose public health risks that is similar to drugs which are under international control. And basically, traffickers are putting them on the market to circumvent the legislation because they are legal. Now, there's a lot of innovation there. In 2024, out of the 755, 118 were new. That means they had never been reported before. So they were new substances. Most of them are synthetic, synthetic substances. And that we see also fast emerging in this group, synthetic opioids, the nitazenes and the orphans, but also still some fentanyl analogues that I mentioned before. Now, this is a market that is always in constant state of flux, with substances that come and go, actually. And some of them don't even stay long on the market, perhaps a year, perhaps a bit more, and sometimes much less. And the use of this NPS is very risky. It has led to a number of acute episodes of harm, I mean fatal overdoses, including fatal overdose. But altogether, The aggregated harm that is related to NPS to date— and this is important to say, to date, because we don't know what will happen with synthetic opioids, these new ones— this aggregated harm has largely been contained because none of the NPS, the level of use of this NPS, for none of them has reached the level of controlled drugs. So the aggregated harm, of course, is lower. And in my last slide, I wanted just very briefly to mention the diversification of the drug market, the drug markets, and the fact that they have become extremely complex. They are characterized by very rapid changes. We see also an increasingly set of different ways to supply drugs to consumers, but also to obtain drugs, for example, through social apps. There is also a widening range of drug products which are on the market. And for example, here on the graph, we show that since 2000, so in the last 25 years, there has been an increase by 5 of the number of type of drugs on the market. So there are 5 times more drug types being seized than in 2000. Traffickers and dealers are targeting potential consumers, especially young people, with snappy branding and a number of new products and new forms of drugs and mixtures. So drug mixtures are becoming becoming more and more common in all regions. You may know some of them. Some have been around for a while, but their content may change also, even if the names remain. So in the Americas, for example, we are talking about 2C, 2CB, pink cocaine, which may contain MDMA, methamphetamine, but also synthetic opioids in some cases, and cocaine. And there are other types of mixture in different regions. For example, we mentioned last year, and this continues to be a main issue in West Africa, the issue of kush, which is a plant material that is sprayed with synthetic cannabinoids, and in some cases contains synthetic opioids, in particular methazones. So this type of substances can be extremely risky because actually the users often do not know what they are ingesting, and they don't know that they are ingesting multiple substances. And then when there is an emergency, first health responders do not know either. So it's difficult to address these issues. So this is the end of my presentation. So some of the main findings. So the Worldlock report, I wanted to say perhaps, is a package. It's not only one report, it's a package of different outputs. So the first one is a special points of interest. I don't know if you have it in the room and you got it, but this is basically the only part that we print. And this provides our audience with key data, key global estimates, and also regional, and also a framework for the main takeaways of the report. Then there is what we call the highlights in green here, which you can download from the internet. It's a PDF booklet basically, which provides a number of key topical analysis on specific issues and developments that characterize the world drug problem nowadays. We also have the thematic chapter, this is in blue here, on the impact of drug use on safety and security. And then perhaps richer even, there is this web-based interactive section of the World Drug Report which is called Drug Market Patterns and Trends, which is very rich and presents more than 400 visualizations in the form of graphs, maps mostly. And organized around also topical findings, I would say, that present an overview of different drug markets for different drugs in different sub-regions or regions as far as drug demand and drug supply are concerned. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Cloé, for this very informative and useful presentation. I would also like to share that if any participant is interested in the presentation, could reach my colleague, Mr. Matteo Paschillo, for— to get electronic version.

Yeah.

So now, with many thanks to Chloe again, I would like to open the floor for our distinguished participants. So who are in the room? Yeah. So I would like to invite, you know, the participants who wish to take the floor to press button and then when the floor is given to introduce yourself at first. Thank you. Now I see Paula from Permanent Mission of Colombia. The floor is yours.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Madam Lee, and thank you also to the research branch and the entire World Drug Report Team for their very rigorous work, for the excellent presentation, which remains an essential reference for our policies. I'm just going to make an intervention in the sense of what we express and had the opportunity to express this morning through our representation in Vienna and through our permanent representative in Vienna. This year, This report confirms what my country knows very well. Drug use keeps rising, 331 million people in 2024, a third more than a decade ago. And cocaine demand is at record highs, with markets growing in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Yet the debate still focuses on supply and countries of origin. In 2024, South America accounted for 64% of global cocaine seizures, the highest share since 1984 and nearly 7 times the amount seized in North America. This is not chance nor any single country's achievement. It reflects an operational, institutional, and human burden that falls mainly on producing and transit regions, made worse by the violence of record cocaine production across our continent. Colombia reads this evidence differently. While demand grows in consumer markets, the afford and the cost stayed at the source. Correcting that imbalance is exactly what common and shared responsibility requires. The report also shifts the center of the debate. Synthetic opioids are now the deadliest drug group. Nearly three-quarters of all drug-related deaths make closer to consumer markets not in any field. The imbalance is clear. The countries that most demand eradication often host the systems where money is laundered, the market where demand grows, and the industries that make these drugs. To press for tougher action on crops while ignoring laundering, precursors, and demand is not a strategy. It shifts responsibility onto others. Colombia has paid paid a heavy price. We have buried women, young people, police officers, soldiers, prosecutors, judges caught in the crossfire of a conflict fueled by illicit economies. That gives us the experience and the moral authority to say here that shared responsibility must be real or it is just a convenient fiction. But Colombia is not only proposing a different vision, we are also delivering results. Our national drug policy weakens criminal structures while changing the conditions that let illicit economies survive. We are acting decisively, and the results are historic. By May 2026, Colombia had seized 3,239 tons of cocaine, the largest amount recorded anywhere in the world, including 985 tons in 2025, our highest annual figure ever. We have dismantled thousands of laboratories and raised aircraft interdictions from 44 in 2022 to 311. Yet we do not measure success by seizures alone. We pursue these results while expanding alternative development programs that treat rural farmers as partners to include, not offenders to punish, because lasting security is built with communities. Under our public utility law, women heads of household have replaced prison for minor drug offenses with community service, easing overcrowding. We are scaling up community-based harm reduction and open the first lower-risk consumption spaces in South America. Our experience confirms that a balanced approach—security, rural development, voluntary substitution, and stronger institutions works better than eradication alone. Shared responsibility must also be measured by in-health. Only 1 in 12 people with a drug use disorder gets treatment. Among women, 1 in 23. So the gap is stark. Low- and middle-income countries carry nearly 80% of severe suffering, but, but reach only 14% of medical opioids. Closing these gaps must be part of the shared responsibility we call for. For these reasons, we reaffirm our convictions. Alternative development is not an expense, but an investment in security, governance, and stability. Lasting results come from state presence and legal opportunities, not eradication alone. Communities are partners not targets. Drug policy must put public health and human rights first, with harm reduction an essential part of any effective response. Above all, the goal is not to maximize hectares eradicated, but to reduce violence, environmental damage, and human suffering. Colombia does not come to shift responsibility onto others, but to ask that global effort go where it has the greatest impact. Shared responsibility must be more than a word in declarations. It must show how we allocate resources, set priorities, and measure accountability. We also need better measures of success, indicators that track disrupted financial flows, dismantle money laundering networks, precursor control, and falling demand alongside lives saved, access to treatment, social inclusion, and development, and not only hectares under cultivation. That is the real and measurable shared responsibility we seek, and Colombia has already assumed its own.

I thank you, Madam Chair. I thank the intervention from the Permanent Mission of Colombia. Um, are there other interventions? I see no. Sorry, Permanent Mission of Russian Federation.

I thank you very much, Ms. Lee. Good day to all colleagues. On behalf of the Russian Federation, I would like to thank UNODC for today's presentation. I would like to highlight that the Russian Federation Russian Federation is committed to the full and effective implementation of the global anti-drug conventions. The Russian Federation pays considerable attention both to the prevention and law enforcement elements of the anti-drug action. In terms of prevention, as highlighted in the UNODC presentation, the youth is among the most vulnerable to the drug threat, and we certainly pay particular attention to defending the youth from the harm caused by drugs. Beyond the action at the national level, we support for decades the relevant projects implemented by UNODC for the youth and with the direct participation of the youth in particular in the region of Central Asia. The Russian Federation stresses particular importance of law enforcement and international cooperation in this area. Again, through the project supported by the Russian Federation, UNODC implements important capacity-building activities for practitioners in different regions of the world. Russia is also a strong proponent of of anti-drug cooperation free from any political influence and interference. Politicization of this area of cooperation benefits only the perpetrators. The Russian Federation would like to thank once again UNODC for issuing the report on an annual basis. We firmly believe that this initiative allows the member states to deepen their knowledge about the world drug problem and proves the need for a depoliticized and effective international cooperation in the fight against drugs. I thank you.

I thank the intervention from the Permanent Mission of Russian Federation. I see no requests from the floor. Yeah. So now I would like I would like to give the floor to Mr. Benjamin Phillips, trying to read delivery marks, on behalf of the New York NGO Committee on Drugs. Benjamin, you have the floor.

Thank you very much. Distinguished participants, my name is Benjamin Phillips. I'm the Treasurer and Manager of the New York NGO Committee on Drugs. We have a substantive committee of the Conference of NGOs and consultive status with the UN and have supported civil society in engaging, with the UN on drug-related matters since 1984. We are very grateful to UNODC New York liaison office and to Ms. Lee for including us today and for our ongoing productive working relationship. Allow me to commend UNODC on their flagship World Drug Report with its detailed data and analysis, and note the theme for this World Drug Day: Persisting Issues, New Challenges, and Innovative Responses. As drug use continues to rise, this research is essential to our collective work. Work. The World Drug Report indicates that more than half people convicted for drug offences globally were convicted for drug use or simple possession. Given the report's findings that punishment and criminalisation exacerbate drug-related harms, fuel violence and insecurity, we call for people who use drugs to be supported and not punished. Recalling this week's high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS, we must continue our shared commitment to end AIDS by 2030. 2030. People who inject drugs have been left behind in the global HIV response, and according to research by one of our members, Harm Reduction International, a mere 6% of the needed funding for harm reduction coverage in low- and middle-income countries is being allocated. Earlier this morning, 19 human rights experts from Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council issued a statement calling for, and I quote, with, with greater urgency than ever, a fundamental shift towards decriminalization, care, and support. As part of their guidance note on decriminalization and drug use, UNAIDS and UNDP state, and I quote, the decriminalization of people who use drugs, combined with investments in harm reduction services, can expand access to care and enable people to seek support without fear of arrest harassment, or discrimination. Earlier today, the UN Secretary-General also called for boosting investment in harm reduction. We echo that persisting issues should be addressed through decriminalization and harm reduction. Noting the complete omission of harm reduction and decriminalization from the World Drug Report, we urge UNODC to support these approaches in line with other UN entities and to ensure system-wide coherence throughout the UN system. Another persisting issue which has also evolved into a new challenge is the use of the death penalty in extrajudicial killings. Today, a large number of our global memberships and many other NGOs supported a joint letter calling on UNODC and the CND to unequivocally condemn the use of the death penalty for drug offenses. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has repeatedly stated that death penalty may not be imposed for drug offenses. We oppose the death penalty unconditionally, and we urge UNODC to include human rights, including the right to life, in future iterations of the World Drug Report. These are the— human rights are the cornerstone of the UN system. Another new challenge we would be remiss not to mention is the extrajudicial killings of over 200 people in civilian fishing boats over the last year. During the recent session of the CND, the UN Special Rapporteur on Counterterrorism and Human Rights drew attention to these serial extrajudicial killings as gravely violating the right to life, calling for them to be denounced by states and for the perpetrators to be held accountable. We echo this call, and we regret that UNODC's 206-page flagship report fails to mention or condemn extrajudicial additional killings or the death penalty. I've almost— I'm almost done. Turning to innovative responses, the role of civil society is to bring expertise and lived experience to the UN system. One of our members, Sanan Corner of Harm Reduction, who will be speaking after me about evidence-based life-saving interventions in New York. We are pleased to bring real-world examples of innovative responses to the UN to foster people-centered dialogue. In closing, civil society are essential partners to advance public health and protect human rights. We bridge the gap between policymakers and affected communities, ensuring those most impacted have a voice in the decision-making process. Recent shifts in funding priorities have led to reduced support for civil society, weakening their capacity to advocate for evidence-based changes. We are thus deeply concerned about the shrinking space for civil society engagement in international drug policy concessions, discussions. As we reflect on the 10th anniversary of the 2016 UNGASS, we must reaffirm the fundamental role of civil society in shaping the effective and evidence-based drug policies. Without sustained support, inclusion, we risk losing critical perspectives, innovative solutions, and expertise that civil society brings to the room. I thank you very much for your attention. I look forward to the remainder of today's event.

So I thank the Statement of the New York NGO Committee on Drugs. So now I would like to give the floor to Dr. Joyce Rivera, founder and president of Sentenced Corner of Harm Reduction.

Madam, you have the floor.

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Ms. Lee, and to all the co-sponsors for creating this Space. Thanks also to Ms. Carpentier for summarizing this important report. My name is Joyce Rivera. I'm the founder and president of St. Ann's Corner of Harm Reduction, which is the longest continuously operating syringe exchange program in the entire United States. The World Drug Report reminds us that we are living in an increasingly interconnected global drug drug landscape. New synthetic substances, as we have heard, are expanding illicit markets. Displacement, instability, and widening inequalities are reshaping the challenges before us. But the report also reminds us that drugs themselves are not the only part of the story. Drug-related harms are profoundly shaped by governance, social exclusion, and the policies we choose. For nearly a century, governments have relied primarily on prohibition and punishment. In my country, drug control policies— agencies grew exponentially from fewer than 300 federal narcotics agencies back in 1930 to thousands today, accompanied by ever-expanding budgets and authorities. Yet, as the World Drug Report repeatedly demonstrates, markets adapt. Faster than institutions, supply routes shift, substances evolve, and the harms persist. The history of prohibition reveals something larger than drug policy. It reveals how societies define belonging and exclusion. For decades, punitive frameworks were sustained by political coalitions that relied on fear and the construction of the other. For instance, mandatory minimum sentences, expanded police powers, and mass incarceration here disproportionately affected marginalized communities, along with increasing poverty and social inequity. The social costs continue to reverberate today. But history also teaches us that change is possible. Between 1981 and 2022, Here in America, 623,000 Americans died from HIV/AIDS. Those deaths became a moral reckoning. Activists, researchers, clinicians, and people who use drugs themselves refused to accept the stigma and the neglect. Through civil disobedience, coalition building, and persistence, they transformed institutions from the outside and then from within. What emerged was not simply a new program model. It was a new understanding of public health. In New York, that transformation produced drug user health hubs embedded within syringe exchange programs where dignity, evidence, and community expertise became central. These hubs demonstrate what the World Drug Report highlights repeatedly, that effective responses require resilience, partnerships, and investments in health and social systems. Yet another tragedy has followed. Between the same period, more than 1.3 million Americans have died from overdose. Once again, unregulated drug markets evolved faster than policy. And once again, communities were forced to innovate. And they did. When fentanyl altered the supply, harm reduction workers delivered new educational approaches. When xylosine emerged, we adapted again. Drug checking programs in New York began analyzing the contents of the unregulated supply and sharing that information with clinicians, outreach workers, and people who use drugs themselves. Information became prevention and knowledge became became survival. This approach reflects one of the central lessons of the World Drug Report. Complexity cannot be met with simplistic solutions. As overdose touch every community, institutions slowly began to shift. The emphasis has moved away from punishment and toward preserving life. Public health agencies, community organizations, and even law enforcement law enforcement increasingly recognize that people who use drugs are not enemies to be defeated, but human beings deserving dignity, healthcare, and opportunity. The story of harm reduction in New York demonstrates that lasting change emerges through broad coalitions. Civil society, communities, researchers, and governments working together can transform transforming resistance into institutions and crisis into innovation. Yet the World Drug Report also warns us about growing instability, social fragmentation, and concentrations of power that threaten these gains. Polarization and exclusion create fertile ground for new harms. Punitive reflexes persist. Even as illicit markets continue to evolve. The lesson of history and the lesson of this year's World Drug Report is clear: we cannot arrest our way out of complexity, we cannot punish our way to public health, and we cannot build safer societies by abandoning the people who are most vulnerable. The measure of our humanity is not how we respond to those with power, but how how we respond to those whom society has too often chosen to cast aside. If a global drug problem is interconnected, then our response must be interconnected as well, grounded in science, accountability, human rights, and the dignity of every person. Thank you. Thank you.

I thank the State statement made by the Southeast Corner of Harm Reduction. So I, I do not see any request for floor, so I would like to give the floor to my colleague Chloe again for any final reflections or remarks. Chloe, you have the floor.

I think—

thank you, Sean. I think a lot has been said also in the intervention that the world of drugs is becoming much more complex. Perhaps as a wrap-up, I would say that there are some markets that are still expanding. And when I say markets, it's both demand and supply. So this is the market for cocaine, for methamphetamine, and also for ketamine. So there are really different markets. Then there is diversification of markets and products. I would really insist on that. I think some of you have mentioned the synthetic drugs, I mean, which are easier to produce, closer to the consumer, the costs are also lower, you don't need geographical areas to cultivate, etc. So this is a threat for sure. But still, I would say that the drug market globally is still dominated by by plant-based drugs, even if we are mentioning a lot of synthetic drugs. In terms of number of users, I mean, number of users of cannabis and cocaine together, and also opiates up to now, but they will decrease since the drastic decline in Afghanistan, are much— it's a much larger number than the users, the number of users of synthetic drugs for the moment. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Chloe, for this final reflection. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to you for being with us, for sharing the informative, you know, information and the research despite the late hour in Vienna. I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Chloe and also the research team of UODC in Vienna and in the field for this outstanding research and outstanding work. So allow me now to conclude by thanking all of you for the participation and for the support. Thank you very much. The meeting is adjourned.