KARACHI: While the overall impact of drug use in terms of health consequences continues to be devastating, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Tuesday revealed that the number of people classified as suffering from drug user disorder has increased for the first time in six years. There are now over 29 million people within this category, compared to the previous figure of 27 million. Additionally, around 12 million people inject drugs with 14 per cent of these living with HIV, it said. This was stated during the launch of the World Drug Report 2016 at local hotel here in Karachi. This report comes after April’s UN General Assembly special session on the world drug problem (UNGASS), a landmark moment in global drug policy which resulted in a series of concrete operational recommendations. Revealing the new findings related to people who inject drugs (PWID), report links between the uses of stimulates, among them new psychoactive substances which are not under international control and engaging in risky injecting and sexual behaviors which can result in a higher risk of HIV infection. “HIV prevalence is particularly high among PWID in South-West Asia and in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, where 28.2 and 22.9 per cent of PWID, respectively, are living with HIV,” report added. The two subregions combined account for 53 per cent of the total number of PWID living with HIV worldwide. “Although both the prevalence of injecting drug use and the prevalence of HIV among PWID in East and South-East Asia are below the global averages, a large number of PWID living with HIV (330,000, or 21 per cent of the world total) reside in the subregion. Four countries combined China, Pakistan, Russian Federation and United States account for 64 per cent of the total number of PWID living with HIV,” it added Nearly 250 million people between the ages of 15 and 64 used at least one drug in 2014, according to the latest World Drug Report released by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). This is around world five per cent of the adult population, it revealed. Speaking on the occasion, Cesar Guedes, Country Representative UNODC said although substantial, this figure has not grown over the past four years in proportion to the global population. On the drug use and its health consequences, Guedes said while drug related mortality has remained stable around the world, in 2014 there were still around 207,000 deaths reported: an unacceptably high number of deaths which are preventable if adequate interventions are in place. During the period, heroine use and related overdose deaths appear to have increased sharply over the last two years in some countries in North America and Western and Central Europe. On the other hand, cannabis remains the most commonly used drug at the global level with an estimated 183 million people having used it in 2014. Report has also pointed out high levels of drug use in prison, including the use of opiates and injecting drug use. “Prisons therefore remain a high risk environment for infectious diseases and prevalence of HIV, hepatitis and tuberculosis among persons held in prison can be substantially higher than among the general population,” it said. 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.