Cocaine Output EXPLODES — What Changed?

A person packing items into a suitcase in a dimly lit room

A new United Nations report reveals that 1 in every 16 people on Earth now uses drugs — the highest level ever recorded — while the global treatment system fails nearly everyone who needs help.

Story Highlights

316 million people worldwide used drugs in 2023, up from 243 million in 2013 — a record high.
Cocaine production hit an all-time high of roughly 3,700 tons in 2023, with use rising from 17 million to 25 million people over the same decade.
Only 1 in 12 people with a drug use disorder received any treatment in 2023.
Drug-related deaths climbed from over 350,000 in 2011 to over 450,000 in 2021, with no updated death data available since then.

Drug Use Hits an All-Time High

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released its World Drug Report 2025 on June 26, 2025. It found that 316 million people used drugs in 2023. That’s up sharply from 243 million in 2013. Cannabis remains the most widely used drug, with 244 million users. Cocaine use jumped from 17 million to 25 million people over the same ten-year span. Officials say global instability and the growing power of criminal networks are driving the surge.^[1]

Cocaine production alone reached roughly 3,700 tons of pure cocaine in 2023 — a record.^[4] Seizures of amphetamines and methamphetamines also hit a new high, making up nearly half of all global synthetic drug seizures.^[3] The report warns that trafficking networks keep adapting — shifting routes, using new technology, and moving smaller shipments to dodge law enforcement. The illegal drug trade generates hundreds of billions of dollars per year, though the United Nations admits that precise figures are hard to pin down.^[1]

The Treatment System Is Failing

Here’s the number that should alarm every American: only 1 in 12 people with a drug use disorder received any treatment in 2023.^[3] Women face even steeper odds. About 1 in 7 men gets some form of treatment, but only 1 in 18 women does. Drug-related deaths rose from over 350,000 in 2011 to over 450,000 in 2021.^[2] The UNODC has not published updated death figures beyond 2021, leaving a four-year gap in what should be critical public health data.

This treatment gap is a real-world consequence of decades of weak border policy and soft-on-crime attitudes that allowed drug networks to grow unchecked. Fentanyl and synthetic drugs flooded American communities while past administrations focused on social programs instead of stopping supply at the source. The data makes clear that the supply side of this crisis is winning. More drugs are being made, more are being used, and most people suffering from addiction are getting no help at all.

What This Means for America

The Trump administration has taken a harder line on drug trafficking, designating major cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and pushing for tougher border enforcement. The UNODC report backs up why that approach matters. When criminal networks operate freely across borders, drug supply expands and communities pay the price in lives lost and families destroyed. Stopping drugs from reaching American streets starts with controlling who and what crosses the border.

Global drug use reached a record 331 million people in 2024 as cocaine production hit an all-time high and methamphetamine trafficking pushed into new markets, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warned in its World Drug Report 2026, released June 26.

— Jim Manzon (@manzonjj) June 29, 2026

Some left-leaning policy groups argue the data proves that enforcement doesn’t work and that governments should decriminalize drug use instead. But that argument ignores a basic fact: the countries with the weakest enforcement tend to see the fastest growth in drug markets. The real failure shown in this report isn’t enforcement — it’s the massive gap in treatment access and the inability of international bodies to cut off drug supply at its source. Americans deserve both strong borders and real treatment options, not a surrender to the drug trade dressed up as reform.