This statistical report presents a range of information on drug use by adults and children drawn together from a variety of sources. It focuses on England only where possible although some statistics are only readily available at GB or UK level or for England and Wales combined. Some of this is new information whilst some has been published previously. More detail can be found in the source publications which contain a wider range of data and analysis.

In 2023/24, **** percent of people in England and Wales aged between 16 and 59 had used cannabis at least once during their lifetime, compared with **** percent in 2001/02.

In 2018, medical cannabis products were legalized for the first time in the United Kingdom. Subsequent to this legalization, the country's medical cannabis market is forecasted to increase in size massively. In 2023, the of medicinal cannabis market in the UK stood at *** million U.S. dollars, and by 2027 it is projected to exceed *** million U.S dollars.

This report contains results from the latest survey of secondary school pupils in England in years 7 to 11 (mostly aged 11 to 15), focusing on smoking, drinking and drug use. It covers a range of topics including prevalence, habits, attitudes, and wellbeing. In 2023 the survey was administered online for the first time, instead of paper-based surveys as in previous years. This move online also meant that completion of the survey could be managed through teacher-led sessions, rather than being conducted by external interviewers. The 2023 survey also introduced additional questions relating to pupils wellbeing. These included how often the pupil felt lonely, felt left out and that they had no-one to talk to. Results of analysis covering these questions have been presented within parts of the report and associated data tables. The report includes this summary report showing key findings, excel tables with more detailed outcomes, technical appendices and a data quality statement. An anonymised record level file of the underlying data on which users can carry out their own analysis will be made available via the UK Data Service in early 2025 (see link below).

As of 2025, approximately ** percent of people in Great Britain aged between 25 and 49 supported the legalization of Cannabis and other soft drugs, compared with just ** percent of those aged 65 or over who supported it. In general, support for legalization and decriminalization of such drugs is associated with age, with older age groups more likely to support the current criminalization of these drugs.

Cannabis is by far the most used drug across the population of the European Union, with almost 30 percent using at some point during their lifetime. Followed by cocaine, which 5 percent have used in their life, and then MDMA, with 4 percent of individuals having used. Highest users of cannabis Europe Czechia and France had the highest prevalence of cannabis use among adults in Europe in 2020, with 11 percent of their populations consuming cannabis. This was followed by Spain, with 10.5 percent of the population using cannabis. Dangerous side to drugs In 2020, 45 percent of those who died as a result of drug use in Europe were aged between 40 and 64 years, while 39 percent of drug deaths were among 25 to 39-year-olds. Norway was the country in Europe with the highest incidence of drug deaths in 2020 at 85 deaths per million population.

Contains a set of data tables for each part of the Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People in England, 2021 report

Data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) on the extent and trends of illicit drug use.

This bulletin provides a comprehensive overview of many different aspects of cannabis use in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Source agency: Health, Social Service and Public Safety (Northern Ireland) Designation: Official Statistics not designated as National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: Drug Use in Ireland and Northern Ireland Drug Prevalence Survey: Cannabis Results

This statistical report presents a range of information on drug use by adults and children drawn together from a variety of sources. It focuses on England only where possible although some statistics are only readily available at GB or UK level or for England and Wales combined. Some of this is new information whilst some has been published previously. More detail can be found in the source publications which contain a wider range of data and analysis. Newly published data includes: Analyses from NHS Digital Hospital Episode Statistics (HES). The latest information from already published sources includes data from: The Office for National Statistics (ONS) on deaths related to drug misuse. National drug treatment monitoring system (NDTMS). Crime survey for England and Wales (CSEW). Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS), Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use (SDD). What About Youth (WAY).

Annual number of deaths registered related to drug poisoning, by local authority, England and Wales.

In 2024/25, there were around 203,950 drug offences in England and Wales, compared with 182,370 in the previous year. For the period between 2002/03 and the most recent reporting year, drug offences in England and Wales peaked in 2008/09, when there were approximately 243,540 offences. Since the peak in 2008/09, the number of drug offences has declined, with 2017/18 having the fewest number of offences in this provided time period. Cannabis involved in highest number of seizures In 2023/24, the police and border forces in England and Wales made 152,660 seizures of cannabis, the most of any drug. By comparison, the next-most common drug, Cocaine, was seized by the police just 21,548 times. While the current government has no plans to legalize cannabis, approximately 28 percent of UK citizens surveyed in 2025 thought that the drug should be legal, with a further 27 percent supporting its decriminalization. Recent surveys also indicate that almost one in three people in England and Wales had used Cannabis at some point in their lives, despite it being illegal. Regional drug crime When broken down by individual police force areas, Merseyside Police, who cover the city of Liverpool, had the highest drug crime rate in England and Wales, at 8.6 offences per 1,000 population. For the whole of England and Wales, the drug crime rate per 1,000 people was 3.4, and was lowest in Dorset, where it was just 1.5. In terms of drug seizures, Cleveland was the police force area with the highest drug seizure rate in England and Wales in 2023/24 at 7,053 seizures per million people. By contrast, the Thames Valley Police only had 242 seizures per million people in the same year.

Drug misuse, symptoms of common mental disorder and personal well-being in adults who reported being a victim of crime in the last year; data from the Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW), year ending March 2021.

In 2018 medical cannabis products were legalized for the first time in the United Kingdom, since then the number of patients using these products is predicted to increase significantly. At the end of 2019, there were less than *** active medical cannabis users, by 2024 the number of users is expected to rise to approximately ***** thousand.

The foundation of the Cannabis Africana project was pioneering and ethically rigorous fieldwork on insider perspectives of actors in the il/legal cannabis trade and its regulation. This was done through in-depth interviews with difficult to access market insiders and regulators in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe. We shared/archived a key component of this interview data in the form of redacted interview transcripts. Interviews were of diverse lengths, from a few minutes to up to 1.5 hours. Interviews used a general interview topic guide with open questions; but they explored different elements of this guide depending on the expertise of the interviewee. Due to geographical focus of the research, the archived transcripts are categoried by country of origin (Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe. In the four countries, interviews were conducted in different languages spoken by the local and international research teams, including Swahili, Yoruba and Tsonga. All interviews were translated and transcribed into English.

In 2019, approximately ** percent of British adults who were using cannabis to treat their medical conditions were taking the drug on a daily basis. A further **** percent of those surveyed were using cannabis weekly to treat their medical conditions.