appears to have increased sharply over the last two years in some countries in North America and Western and Central Europe.

Underlining the significance of this, Fedotov noted that while the challenges posed by new psychoactive substances remain a serious concern, heroin continues to be the drug that kills the most people and this resurgence must be addressed urgently.

Overall, opioids continue to pose the highest potential harm and health consequences among major drugs.

Cannabis, meanwhile, remains the most commonly used drug at the global level, with an estimated 183 million people having used it in 2014. By analysing trends over several years, the report shows that with changing social norms towards cannabis predominantly in the west cannabis use has climbed in parallel with higher acceptability towards the drug.

In many regions,release from prison.

The report notes that men are three times more likely than women to use cannabis, cocaine or amphetamines, whereas women are more likely than men to engage in the non-medical use of opioids and tranquilizers. Gender disparities can be attributed to the opportunity of drug use in a social environment, rather than gender being a factor determining drug use.

Despite the fact that more men use drugs than women, the impact of drug use is greater on women than it is on men, because women tend to lack access to the continuum of care for drug use dependence.

Within the family context, female partners and children of drug users are also more likely to be the victims of drug-related violence.

With 2016 marking the first year of the adoption