A recent review over the usage of illegal drugs has revealed that more of the people have been consuming illegal drugs since 2009. The aim of the review was to gauge the gravity of the drug abuse.

The review was conducted all over the world, however, the researchers had a problem in noting the exact figures in the poor countries. It has been revealed that about 271 million people all over the world consume illegal drugs.

It has been reported that Marijuana and cannabis are the most favored illegal drugs which are used by as many as 203 million users, all over the world. North America, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand are among those countries where these drugs have dominance.

In 2009, about 11% of the population of North America consumed cannabis. People in the age group of 15 to 64 use the drug majorly. It has come to light that about 14 million people of the North America use Cocaine while the same drug is consumed by 21 million people all over the world.

Opioid use is also said to be high as an estimated 12 million to 21 million people consumes it worldwide. The researchers have noted that in the wealthy countries the trend of consuming illicit drugs is quite high as compared to the developing nations.

The co-author of the report, Wayne Hall from the University of Queensland's Centre for Clinical Research said, "Cannabis was far and away the most widely used illicit drug globally, but heroin and other opiates cause the most harm, followed by amphetamine-type stimulants and cocaine. Among the most common harms were drug dependence, overdose deaths, accidents, violence, HIV-AIDS and other blood-borne infections”. The need to control the drug abuse has been recommended by the researchers.