An estimated 3 % of the global population;; or 185 million people consume illicit drugs annually. Among this population are people from almost every country on earth and from every walk of life. Countless more people;; around the world;; are involved in the production and trafficking of illicit drugs;; and still more are touched by the devastating social and economic costs of this trade. These people live in both developed and developing countries;; are rich and poor;; healthy and unhealthy;; citizens and refugees. Illicit drugs are a truly global phenomenon. Partially a consequence of this pervasiveness;; and partially a consequence of the illicit and hidden nature of this trade;; reliable analysis and statistics on the production;; trafficking and consumption of illicit drugs are rare. In cooperation with Member States;; the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has endeavoured to fill the gaps. In this first edition of the new two volume World Drug Report;; UNODC presents more quantitative data than ever before in an effort to increase the amount of factual evidence available in a field which is so notoriously difficult to quantify. This year;; the analysis of trends;; some going back ten years or more;; is presented in Volume 1. Detailed statistics are presented in Volume 2. Taken together these volumes will provide the most complete picture yet on today's illicit drug situation.