This UN report from the recently released World Drug Report 2026.
This excerpt from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; World Drug Report 2026:
Section: What to Watch:
Recent Changes in Cannabis Markets
Cannabis continues to be the most widely trafficked and consumed drug worldwide. On the basis of the latest available data, cannabis accounts, globally, for more than one half of drug seizure cases (2024) and for around 40 per cent of people with a drug use disorder (2023).
In 2023 and 2024, aggregate quantities of cannabis herb and cannabis resin seized – the two main long-standing types of cannabis sold on the illicit market – reached historically high levels, despite a steady decrease over the period 2011–2024 in the quantities seized in North America.
The overall increase from the low point of 2019 was driven mainly by the quantities seized in Africa, which has come to account for more than half of the quantity of cannabis herb seized globally. Seizures of cannabis products continue to be predominantly in the form of cannabis herb.
In 2024, the total quantity of cannabis resin seized was at its lowest since 2011, and was concentrated in Western and Central Europe, North Africa and South-West Asia. Cultivation of the cannabis plant occurs in virtually every country worldwide, and trafficking of cannabis herb continues to be predominantly intraregional.
Inter-regional flows increasing
However, in recent years, the importance of interregional flows has increased. On the basis of data on the provenance of cannabis reported by Member States, in 2024, the share of reports referring to a country from the same subregion was at its lowest on record. At the interregional level, international cannabis trafficking has somewhat declined from historically important sources, such as Afghanistan, Morocco and the Netherlands.
By contrast, countries in North America were mentioned as sources of cannabis with increasing frequency: 57 countries or territories outside the subregion over the period 2015– 2024, compared with 11 countries or territories over the period 2005–2014
The nature of illicit cannabis products in some markets has changed, with potency (THC content) going up in both the United States and, collectively, in the European Union, alongside reduced levels of cannabidiol (CBD).
This change appears to have been achieved through a combination of genetic selection by means of plant breeding – aimed at producing high-potency cultivars – and certain cultivation practices, such as removing male plants or using feminized seeds in order to prevent pollination.
Indoor cultivation has led to increased potency
Indoor cultivation, allowing the optimized control of light, temperature, humidity and nutrients, has also played a part. In Europe, one of the first countries where these trends became visible was the Kingdom of the Netherlands, where the potency of cannabis products sold in coffee shops increased sharply in the early 2000s, especially in the case of locally produced cannabis – both herb and resin – while cannabis trafficked from abroad typically had lower potency. The latter included cannabis resin from Morocco, whose potency increased in the late 2010s.
Morocco remains one of the source countries for cannabis trafficked to and within Europe. At the same time, there are indications that measures taken by Spanish law enforcement authorities from 2018 onwards to curb this flow occurred in parallel with the increased production of cannabis herb within Europe, as well as with an adaptation in maritime routes for cannabis resin around the Strait of Gibraltar.
The above developments in the illicit supply chain of cannabis have been taking place within the broader context of the diversification of the illicit drug market and of changes in legal frameworks in certain countries.
Cannabis increasingly being used with other substances
In line with the broader trend of products and concoctions containing mixtures of psychoactive substances, which often have a variable and uncertain composition, cannabis is sometimes found or used in combination with other substances, with or without the knowledge of the people who use the products.
One study, which analysed products purchased in the United Kingdom during the period 2013–2024 as cannabis or cannabis-derived products, found that one third of those products contained a psychoactive substance not derived from the cannabis plant, 43 per cent contained no naturally occurring cannabinoids, and 6 per cent contained both naturally occurring cannabinoids and other psychoactive substances.
In addition to cannabis-derived substances, the main psychoactive substances detected were synthetic cannabinoids, but small numbers of samples were also adulterated with cocaine, ketamine and opiates.
In Africa, concoctions have been reported where cannabis is mixed with codeine and tramadol (“gutter water”) and alcohol (“monkey tail”), as have long-standing combinations with heroin (“nyaope”) and methaqualone (“white pipe”). Cannabis may act as an entry point to mixtures containing opioids or other psychoactive substances.
Moreover, several countries in Africa have recently highlighted increases in the use of cannabis or THC-infused products, including products with higher potency, especially among youth.
In the European Union, low-THC herbal material, likely sold on the illicit market as cannabis, is increasingly found to be enhanced with synthetic and semi-synthetic cannabinoids, some of which are highly potent.
The impact of synthetic cannabis
Indeed, in the longer term, the proliferation of new synthetic cannabinoids, marketed in various product forms as stand-alone legal substitutes for cannabis, may have contributed to a general competitive environment that incentivized the creation of ever more potent strains of cannabis.
Synthetic cannabinoids emerged in Europe in the mid-2000s and apparently gained popularity (possibly through media exposure) in 2008,coinciding with the start of a sustained broadly increasing trend in cannabis potency in the European Union lasting through to 2024.
In the case of North America, a similar relationship, driven by market competition, may have played out between the increasing availability and variety of cannabis products (mostly derived from the cannabis plant rather than of synthetic or semi-synthetic origin) from legal supply chains, such as high-potency concentrates and extracts, and the rise in potency of cannabis in the illegal supply chain.
Canada reported that, in 2023, illegal cannabis was often more potent and cheaper than regulated, legal market products, and this was seen as a way for illegal supply chains to retain their customer base.
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.
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 programme.
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.
Illicit cannabis riding on licit market supply chains
Furthermore, some countries where cannabis has entered commercial supply chains (indefinitely or temporarily) appear to be increasingly used to source cannabis for illicit markets elsewhere. Various official and open-source data indicate that major entry points to the illicit drug market in Europe, whose role was previously associated with other drugs, such as the ports of Antwerp, Belgium; Rotterdam, Kingdom of the Netherlands; and Hamburg, Germany, are increasingly being used for cannabis trafficked along new routes.
In 2025, customs authorities in the Kingdom of the Netherlands seized 65.5 tons of cannabis, a fourfold increase compared with the amount seized in 2024, coming mostly from Canada, Thailand and the United States. In addition to seizures at seaports, seizures were made from air cargo and air passengers. Similar patterns have reportedly been observed in Belgium, Germany and Spain. Organized crime plays an important role in these activities, both in source and destination countries.
Canada reported that, among identified Canadian-based organized criminal groups involved in the cannabis market in 2023, the vast majority were already involved in the illegal market prior to the legalization of the non-medical cannabis market, and there were indications that some were abusing legal production licences.
Some open sources suggest that consignments in Belgium and Netherlands (Kingdom of the) from North America are of low quality, suggesting that some of this cannabis is produced outside the constraints of the licensed production chain.
A possible sign of similar dynamics evolving within Africa was that the United Republic of Tanzania reported an observed increase, in 2023, in the trafficking of high-potency cannabis from African countries with legal provisions allowing cannabis cultivation.
Within Asia, the largest consumer market for cannabis herb is India, which is supplied to a large extent (but not exclusively) by cultivation within its own territory; however, the quantity of cannabis herb seized in India declined steadily over the period 2021–2024. SouthWest Asia remains a source for cannabis resin trafficked outside the subregion, although seizures in South-West Asia declined fourfold between 2020 and 2024.
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