VIENNA, March 10: While drugs are a serious global problem, the number of users worldwide is relatively small and drug-related deaths are only a fraction of those caused by alcohol, tobacco or AIDS, the UN said on Monday.

“Illicit drug use has been contained to less than 5.0 per cent of the world adult population, as opposed to five or six times this proportion for people addicted to tobacco or alcohol,” UN anti-drugs tsar Antonio Maria Costa said.

“There are no more than 25 million problem drug users — that’s less than 0.5 per cent of the world population,” said Costa, who heads the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

“There are more people affected by AIDS.” The number of deaths due to drugs was limited to “perhaps 200,000 a year, namely one tenth of those killed by alcohol and one twentieth of those killed by tobacco,” the UNODC chief continued.

With the exception of Afghanistan, worldwide drug cultivation had been slashed.

Nevertheless, to move beyond simply containing the problem, more needed to be done, Costa said.—AFP