INCB Narcotic Drugs 2024 report notes unequal access to opioid analgesics in lower-income countries despite sufficient global availability of raw materials, increase in the use of fentanyl and cannabis
VIENNA, 11 March 2025 - The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) released today 'Narcotic Drugs 2024', its technical publication presenting the latest consolidated global data on narcotic drug production and use for medical and scientific purposes, including pain relief. The report is published each year and accompanies INCB's annual report. 'Narcotic Drugs' covers a three-year period and is based on the actual data and estimates provided by countries.
An INCB analysis of data on the consumption of opioid analgesics for licit purposes has reconfirmed that the unequal global access to and availability of affordable opioid analgesics, such as morphine, is a persistent problem. One factor contributing to this problem is that only 18 per cent, or a total of 32.5 tons, of all the morphine manufactured worldwide is utilized directly for pain relief. The consumption of morphine, along with other opioid analgesics, remains concentrated in developed countries within Europe, North America and Oceania, and the levels of consumption of the substance in other regions are insufficient to adequately address medical needs. While the supply of opiate raw materials (such as opium, morphine and codeine) has remained high globally both as production and as stocks, there are significant disparities in the availability of narcotic drugs.
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Manufacture of oxycodone, one of the drugs commonly associated with overdose deaths in relation to the misuse of prescription drugs, has followed a decreasing trend in the past decade, dropping to 69.5 tons in 2022, however it increased again, to 85 tons, in 2023. The overall decreasing trend in manufacture may be attributable to stricter control measures introduced in some countries where the risk of overdose deaths and misuse of oxycodone is significant. With regard to synthetic opioids, global fentanyl manufacture increased for the first time in several years.
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Global production of cannabis has continued the trend noted in previous years of an overall increase, however decreasing from the peak in 2021, amounting to 568.6 tons in 2023. In view of the recent changes in the requirements for reporting on cannabis and cannabis-related substances, the data in the current report on cannabis needs to be considered with caution.
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The report is available at the following link:
'Narcotic Drugs 2024' is now available for download .
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