Presented in six separate booklets, the World Drug Report 2020 provides a wealth of information and analysis to support the international community in implementing operational recommendations on a number of commitments made by Member States, including the recommendations contained in the outcome document of the special session of the General Assembly on the world drug problem, held in 2016.
Booklet 1 provides a summary of the five subsequent booklets by reviewing their key
findings and highlighting their policy implications. Booklet 2 focuses on drug
demand and contains a global overview of the extent of and trends in drug use, including drug use disorders, and its health
consequences. Booklet 3 deals with drug supply and presents the latest estimates
and trends regarding the production of and trafficking in opiates, cocaine, amphetamine-type stimulants and cannabis. Booklet
4 addresses a number of cross-cutting issues, including the macrodynamics that are driving the expansion and increasing
complexity of the drug markets, and describes some of the rapidly evolving drug-related concerns: the latest, multifaceted
global opioid crisis; rapid market changes; the market for new psychoactive substances; the use of the darknet for supplying
drugs; and developments in jurisdictions that have measures allowing the non-medical use of cannabis. Booklet
5 looks at the association between socioeconomic characteristics and drug use disorders, including at the macro-, community
and individual levels, with a special focus on population subgroups that may be impacted differently by drug use and drug
use disorders. Finally, booklet 6 addresses a number of other drug
policy issues that all form part of the international debate on the drug problem but on which in-depth evidence is scarce,
including access to controlled medicines, international cooperation on drug matters, alternative development in drug cultivation
areas, and the nexus between drugs and crime.
