Tough controls on illegal drugs have limited the global death toll from narcotics, according to the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, rejecting a "growing chorus" calling for drugs to be legalised.
Statistics in the UN World Drug Report, which was released on Wednesday, show there are between 20-24 million serious drug users around the world, or less than one per cent of the world's population, UNODC executive director Antonio Maria Costa told a news conference.
An estimated 200,000 people die every year of drug-related causes, he said.
Both statistics are far below the third of the world population who use tobacco, the five million who die yearly of tobacco-related causes and nearly two million who die because of alcohol, and are "evidence that controls on drugs have contained the problem, at least in terms of casualties," said Mr Costa.
The authors of the UN drug report say the vastly higher death toll from tobacco and alcohol is not because the two legal substances are more dangerous than drugs but because "they are legal and consequently more available."
"If currently illegal substances were made legal their popularity would surely increase, perhaps reaching the levels of licit addictive substances, increasing the related morbidity and mortality," the report says.
In a preface to the UN report, which shows that production of cannabis, cocaine and heroin declined or stabilised around the world last year, while synthetic drugs increased, Mr Costa rejected calls to legalise drugs.
"There has been a limited but growing chorus among politicians, the press and even in public opinion saying drug control is not working," remarked Mr Costa.
"While changes are needed, they should be in favour of different means to protect society against drugs rather than by pursuing the goal of abandoning protection," he said.
Law enforcement should focus on drug traffickers instead of users, Costa added, stressing that "people who take drugs need medical help, not criminal retribution."
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama's drug czar Gil Kerlikowske ruled out the possibility of a nationwide legalisation of drugs in the US.
"My top priority will be to intensify the efforts to reduce the demand for drugs which fuels crime and violence around the world," said Mr Kerlikowske.
"As regards legalisation, it's not in the President's vocabulary and it's not in mine," he said.
Mr Costa said that global use of cocaine, heroin and cannabis fell last year while production of stimulants rose.
"The markets for the three main drugs - cocaine, heroin and cannabis - are on a downward trend," he said.
But production of man-made amphetamine-type stimulants - including methamphetamines and ecstasy, which is harder to track - was up, the report showed.
"What was once a cottage industry has become big business," it noted, citing industrial-sized laboratories in southeast Asia, especially in the Greater Mekong region.
Global drug watchdogs cannot spot cultivation sites of amphetamines by satellite, as they can of cannabis, heroin or cocaine, because the synthetic drugs that can be produced anywhere from a tiny garage to a sprawling factory, said Mr Costa.
"But we have evidence concerning consumption as well as access to medical treatment for the consequences of heavy amphetamine use," he said.
Saudi Arabia and Brazil have seen significant spikes in amphetamine use, added Mr Costa.
Meanwhile, consumption of cannabis, the most widely used drug in the world, dropped in developed countries, especially among young people. However, the psychoactive component in marijuana, THC, has almost doubled in 10 years, the 305-page report said.