Drug and Substance use continues to be a major public health and socioeconomic problem worldwide. In 2014 the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that total worldwide substance use would consist of 2 billion consumers of alcohol, 1.3 billion smokers and 185 million users of other drugs in the near future. The WHO further reports that global burden of disease due to alcohol and illicit drug jointly contributed to 12.4% of all deaths in 2000 and 8.9% of total years of lost life.
Drug and Substance use continues to be a major public health and socioeconomic problem worldwide. In 2014 the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that total worldwide substance use would consist of 2 billion consumers of alcohol, 1.3 billion smokers and 185 million users of other drugs in the near future. The WHO further reports that global burden of disease due to alcohol and illicit drug jointly contributed to 12.4% of all deaths in 2000 and 8.9% of total years of lost life.
In addition to the above, the World Health Organization statistics of 2019, showed that 2.6 million deaths were caused by alcohol consumption worldwide. The highest levels of alcohol related deaths per 100,000 persons are observed in the WHO European and African Regions with 52.9 deaths and 52.2 deaths per 100,000 people respectively. An estimated 400 million people or 7 % of the world’s population aged 15 years and older, lived with alcohol use disorders in 2019 (WHO 2018).
