WHO: Drugs and alcohol killed more than 3M people worldwide in 2019

June 25 (UPI) -- The use of drugs and alcohol killed more than 3 million people around the world in 2019 with men accounting for the most deaths, the World Health Organization reported Tuesday.

The WHO's global status report obtained data from 145 member nations and indicates alcohol use caused 2.6 million deaths in 2019, which represents 4.7% of all deaths.

The report also shows psychoactive drug use caused 600,000 deaths in 2019.

The vast majority of those deaths are men, including about 2 million due to alcohol use and 400,000 due to drug use.

"Substance use severely harms individual health, increasing the risk of chronic diseases, mental health conditions and tragically resulting in millions of preventable deaths every year," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

"To build a healthier, more equitable society, we must urgently commit to bold actions that reduce the negative health and social consequences of alcohol consumption and make treatment for substance use disorders accessible and affordable," Ghebreyesus said.

The report says the rate of alcohol-related deaths has gone down since 2010 but remains "unacceptably high."

The people most affected are those in their 20s and 30s, in addition to men.

Non-communicable diseases caused about 1.6 million alcohol-related deaths in 2019, including 474,000 deaths from cardiovascular diseases and 401,000 from cancer.

Traffic accidents, violence and self-harm accounted for 724,000 alcohol-related deaths in 2019.

Deaths caused by HIV, tuberculosis and other communicable diseases accounted for another 284,000 lives lost in 2019.

The WHO urges nations to improve their "prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol."

The 334-page global status report is free and available online via a download.