Different psychoactive chemicals, misuse of illegal drugs, and abuse of legal substances like prescription medications and alcohol are all examples of substance abuse or drug abuse.
Illicit drug users account for around 5.5 % of the worldwide populace. Moreover, substance use problems affected approximately 35 million people globally in 2018.
Throughout the previous decade, the prevalence of drug use in the United Kingdom has remained constant. However, recent figures in Wales, England, and Scotland show that the proportion of people who take drugs has risen in the last decade.
Despite having severe regulations and punishments in place for anyone found making and distributing illicit drugs, the United Kingdom is among Europe's highest rates of drug-related fatalities, with 76 deaths per million people.
The UK recorded 225.6 thousand drug crimes in the 2019/20 fiscal year. Border security officers in England & Wales seized more than 130 thousand cannabis plants, considerably more than any other narcotic in the same year.
According to the most current polls, 9.4 % of people in Wales and England, 5.9 % in Northern Ireland, and 12% in Scotland used any type of drug. Throughout the last five years, drug usage among 15-year-olds has increased.
In the year 2018, 21% of 15-year-olds in Scotland and 38% of 15-year-olds in England admitted to using drugs at some point in their lives.
Cannabis remains the most widely used drugs followed by powder cocaine, MDMA etc. Among 7.8% of the adults aged 16 to 59 years and 18.7% of the adults aged 16 to 24, cannabis remained the popular one in the year 2019 which is significantly higher when compared with second and third most popular drugs. As for second and third popular drugs, 2.6% of the people aged 16 to 59 used powder cocaine whereas 1.6% of the people age 16 to 24 used nitrous oxide.
The use of Amphetamine decreased in 2019 by 43% compared to 2018 among the adults aging from 16 to 59. The use of Anabolic steroid on the other hand also decreased from 62,00 to 31,000 among the same age group.
Although powder cocaine usage among individuals aged 16 to 59 years did not change in the year 2018 and 2019, the number of regular users decreased from 14.4% in the 2019 to 8.7% in the 2020.
Spice and other synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists are commonly used in jails. In Wales and England from 2018 to 2019, they were found in more drug tests over cannabis. Buprenorphine was by far the most often found substance in Scotland's jail addiction prevalence testing from 2018 to 2019.