Their testimony is important in the war on drug abuse, which should focus on those who enrich themselves through other people’s addictions, not on the victims.Lenten campaign 2026
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On the occasion of the World Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking celebrated on June 26, 2025, by the United Nations, Pope Leo XIV spoke to people who have experienced the hell of addiction. He assured them that the Church and the world “need” them to free those who are still in the “invisible prison” of drugs. The Pope also called on states to target criminal organizations rather than their “victims.”
“There are huge concentrations of interest and extensive criminal organizations that states have a duty to dismantle,” Pope Leo XIV insisted in the Vatican's Saint Damaso courtyard.
Under a blazing sun, the new Pope welcomed several hundred former drug users and volunteers involved in the fight against trafficking.
Leo drew loud applause when he lamented that “too often, in the name of security, war is waged against the poor, filling prisons with those who are merely the last link in a chain of death.”
For the Pontiff, cities must not be “freed of the marginalized, but of marginalization; they must not be cleared of the desperate, but of desperation.”
The “fight” must therefore be against “those who make their immense business out of drugs and every other addiction – think of alcohol or gambling,” insisted the head of the Catholic Church.
More than 300 million drug users worldwide
In a report published recently, the United Nations estimates that 316 million people worldwide used drugs in 2023 — not counting alcohol and tobacco — representing 6% of the population aged 15 to 64, compared to 5.2% in 2013.
With 244 million users, cannabis remains the most widely used drug, followed by opiates (61 million), amphetamines (30.7 million), cocaine (25 million), and ecstasy (21 million).
The report warns that these figures are likely to rise due to the arrival of new vulnerable groups fleeing poverty, instability, and conflict. While it's difficult to estimate the income generated by the illicit drug trade, the United Nations considers it to be “hundreds of billions of dollars a year.”
“The Church needs you”
In his speech, Leo XIV described drugs as “an invisible prison.” He said he was counting on those who had escaped it to bear witness and take action:
“If you have felt rejected and spent, you are now no more. Your mistakes, your suffering, but above all your desire for life make you witnesses that change is possible.”
According to the Pope, it's a matter of upholding “the infinite dignity imprinted on each person.” To this end, he assured his audience: “The Church needs you. Humanity needs you. Education and politics need you.”
