About 246 million people around the world use illegal drugs, slightly over 5 percent of those aged 15 to 64 years in 2013, the 2015 World Drug Report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said Friday.
Speaking on the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov noted that, although drug use is stable around the world, only one out of six problem drug users has access to treatment. "With nearly 200,000 drug-related deaths and with 1.65 million infected with HIV in 2013, access to evidence based prevention and treatment can sometimes be the difference between life and death."
He continued: “Women in particular appear to face barriers to treatment: while one out of three drug users globally is a woman, only one out of five drug users in treatment is a woman.”
