An estimated 256 million people worldwide used cannabis in 2024, outpacing opioids (63 million), amphetamines (32 million), cocaine (25 million) and ecstasy (21 million), according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Furthermore, the number of people using cannabis worldwide grew by 40% over the course of a decade, while the prevalence of its use increased from 3.8% of the population aged 15 to 64 in 2014 to 4.8% of the population in 2024, according to the UNODC World Drug Report 2026 that was released June 26.
This growth was driven by shifting perceptions on cannabis and new trafficking patterns, according to the report.
“Cannabis production, trafficking and use are all evolving, likely in part due to the ongoing changes in perception towards the drug around the time when many jurisdictions, notably in North America, adopted legalization and/or decriminalization policies,” according to the UNODC.
“Historically, most cannabis trafficking has been within regions, largely because cannabis can be grown virtually anywhere,” according to the report. “Yet inter-regional trade, with supply coming from North America, is growing: Over 2015–2024, 57 countries or territories outside North America identified it as a source region for cannabis seizures, up from just 11 in the preceding decade.”
While cannabis use remains widespread globally, the prevalence of past-year cannabis use is the highest in North America, with 32.4% of Canadians using cannabis in 2024 and 26.4% of people in the U.S. using cannabis in 2024, according to the report. New Zealand (14.1%), Spain (12.6%), Uruguay (12.3%) and Australia (11.5%) also had high prevalence rates.
Meanwhile, the steady, long-term growth of the overall number of people who use cannabis in various regions rose to the following numbers in 2024:
- North America: 69.3 million
- Asia: 68.5 million (including 32 million in South Asia)
- Africa: 65.1 million (including 33.5 million in West and Central Africa)
- Europe: 31.3 million (including 26.9 million in Western and Central Europe)
- South America: 15.7 million
- Oceania: 3.5 million
Specifically in North America, adult-use cannabis legalization and the progressive normalization of its use influenced the perceived harmfulness of regular cannabis use, according to the report. But, according to the UNODC, young people are increasingly perceiving cannabis as more harmful, representing a “major reversal” in long-term trends.
“Among adolescents in the United States, where long-term data are available, the risk perception of harm caused by occasional and regular cannabis use has undergone a long-term decline,” the report states. “However, since 2021, that trend has been reversed, and the perception of cannabis use as being harmful has been increasing ever since, including in relation to the vaping of cannabis.”
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
The UNODC also determined that school surveys in the U.S. have shown a decline in the perceived availability of cannabis, meaning kids think it’s more difficult to access cannabis.
“Although recent use of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis among adolescents has declined, several other worrying trends and technologically mediated risky behaviors are rising,” according to the report. “E-cigarettes and the vaping of tobacco and cannabis are increasing. The vaping of cannabis may be used to evade detection or to supplement the smoking of cannabis. Vaping cartridges have also been found to contain other substances, including potentially lethal doses of [new psychoactive substances] NPS.”
The report also included use patterns for novel semi-synthetic cannabinoids.
According to the report’s findings, the introduction of control mechanisms (including state laws or regulations in the U.S.) has mitigated the spread of semi-synthetic cannabinoids that started to appear after 2020:
- After 2020 and 2021, semi-synthetic cannabinoids, in particular delta-8 THC and HHC, have appeared on the market mostly in the United States and in Western and Central Europe. The substances have been sold on legal and illegal markets in multiple forms.
- The marketed forms of some semi-synthetic cannabinoids (for example, bright-colored gummies) have attracted the attention of young people and children, leading to poisonings.
- The introduction of national and international control mechanisms has led to a reduction in the availability of these substances, but they continue to be used.
- A host of alternative, chemically related substances continue to appear on the market.
“Owing to loopholes in national legislations, these semi-synthetic cannabinoids spread rapidly and widely before legal controls were introduced at the national level (in the period 2022–2024), and at the international level in the case of HHC (in 2025); delta8-THC was already under international control, but evaded some national laws, for example, in the United States,” according to the UNODC report. “In 2024, 12.3% of United States 12th graders (17- and 18-year-olds) had used delta-8-THC in the past year; however, in 2025, that proportion declined, with 9.2% of 12th graders reporting having used cannabis products made from hemp, including delta-10-THC and HHC in addition to delta-8 THC.”
The report also notes that THC potency in cannabis products in the unregulated U.S. market increased from 4% in 1995 to 16.1% in 2024, with the UNODC suggesting that there is a growing concern about “easy access” to high-potency cannabis products in North America.
The UNODC determined that specific cultivation practices that have improved plant varieties and a shift toward more indoor production have contributed to this trend, which is being fueled by regulated and unregulated market competition to meet consumer demand.
“In the United States, the increase in cannabis potency appears to have started around 2000, while several indicators suggest that the acceptability, perceived availability and accessibility of cannabis increased significantly from the 1990s as a result of various factors, including changes in social norms and, subsequently, legal frameworks,” the report states.
“More recently, one study in the United States examined the cannabinoid profiles of cannabis samples obtained during the period 2013–2022, and compared illegal samples with legal samples from states with a medical cannabis program,” according to the report. “The study concluded that cannabis available across the United States was generally of a closely related genetic origin; however, the cannabis from legal dispensaries tended to contain more THC and less CBD than the cannabis seized from the illegal market.”
While cannabis cultivation is prevalent in “virtually every country worldwide,” and while trafficking the plant remains predominantly intraregional, the “importance of interregional flows” has increased in recent years, according to the UNODC.
The report pointed out that high-THC products from North America are increasingly reaching overseas markets.
“At the interregional level, international cannabis trafficking has somewhat declined from historically important sources, such as Afghanistan, Morocco and [the] Netherlands,” the report states. “By contrast, countries in North America were mentioned as sources of cannabis with increasing frequency.”
