In several regions of the world, there has been a growing concern over the significant use of substances such as amphetamine-type stimulants, cocaine, or ecstasy for non-medical purposes. In 2021, stimulants came in second as the most commonly used drug worldwide, with roughly 78 million people using these substances annually. Despite the increasing need for effective interventions, pharmacological treatment approaches to specifically address stimulant use disorders are only now being developed, while implementation of evidence-based psychosocial interventions remains very limited in most countries.
Access to treatment and care of drug use disorders overall, remains highly unequal. While almost half the people who use amphetamine-type stimulants are women, only 27% of those receiving treatment are women. While treatment demand for stimulant use disorders varies across regions, it accounts for close to 50% of overall treatment demand in some regions.
It is crucial to bridge the global treatment gap for stimulant use disorders.
With a view to addressing this rising challenge, Ms. Ghada Waly, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), has called on Member States to “(…) scale up and support effective interventions for (…) the treatment of stimulant use disorders”, during the high-level segment of the 67th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND).
In this context, at a side-event of the 2024 CND session, the UNODC Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Section (PTRS) formally launched #ScaleUp, a multi-country initiative on combined psychosocial and pharmacological treatment of stimulant use disorders, focusing on its feasibility, safety, and effectiveness in different contexts. The main goal of #ScaleUp is to strengthen the evidence base for scalable interventions for the treatment of stimulant use disorders that can benefit different population groups and regions in an equitable way.
During this side-event organized by UNODC’s Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Section with the support of Australia, Brazil, France, Japan, the United States, the World Health Organization, the UNODC HIV/AIDS Section, and the Vienna NGO Committee on Drugs, current research, and good practices on both psychosocial and pharmacological treatment of stimulant use disorders, as well as future opportunities were discussed. “Countries urgently need to step up and prepare treatment and care services to close the global treatment gap and provide effective and person-centred support for people with stimulant use disorders” said Dr. Justice Tettey, Chief of Drugs, Laboratory, Scientific Services Branch at UNODC. Dr. Vladimir Poznyak, Head of the Alcohol, Drugs and Addictive Behaviours Unit at WHO, expressed hope, that “the #ScaleUp initiative could summarize everything that we know about effective and evidence-based management of stimulant use disorders, and by working together, effective support for countries could be provided to reach the scale that we have never seen before.” During the session, the speakers shared current stimulant use and available treatment services in their countries, as well as ongoing research on treatment of stimulant use disorder.
This initiative builds on previous work and publications of UNODC, partner agencies and international researchers, such as the Discussion Paper on “Stimulant Use Disorders: Current Practices and Current Perspectives”, which advocates for the scale up of effective psychosocial treatment, as well as increased research on pharmacological treatment options, with a view to increasing treatment engagement, treatment retention and effective treatment options for stimulant dependence.
UNODC invites all interested Member States, researchers, and civil society organizations to join and support this important initiative, with a view to promoting scalable and effective interventions for the treatment of stimulant use disorders around the globe.
For more information on #ScaleUp, please contact
unodc-ptrs@un.org
Links:
To know more about the Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Section, click here.
To learn more about the #ScaleUp initiative, click here.
To access the UNODC Discussion Paper on “Stimulant Use Disorders: Current Practices and Current Perspectives”, click here.
