35 Million People Worldwide Suffer from Drug Use Disorders; Only 1 in 7 Receive Treatment
The higher estimates for 2017 are the result of improved knowledge of the extent of drug use from new surveys conducted in India and Nigeria, both among the ten most populous countries in the world.
The report also estimates the number of opioid users at 53 million, up 56 percent from previous estimates, and that opioids are responsible for two thirds of the 585,000 people who died as a result of drug use in 2017. Globally, 11 million people injected drugs in 2017, of whom 1.4 million live with HIV and 5.6 million with hepatitis C.