A new U.N. report says about five percent of the world’s population used drugs at least once in recent years and nearly 30 million people could be dependent on narcotics to the point of needing treatment.
The annual report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime released Thursday also says the United States accounts for about 25% of drug-related deaths annually. It says death rates there continue to rise, reaching more than 52,000 in 2015.
The world’s population is estimated at over seven billion people.
The new report says that of the almost 12 million people worldwide injecting drugs, 1.6 million are living with HIV and 6.1 million with hepatitis C.
