The Asian synthetic drug industry continued to expand in 2025, the United Nations said this week, with seizures of methamphetamine and ketamine both jumping to new all-time highs.
In its annual report on the Asian synthetic drug market, released yesterday, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that methamphetamine seizures spiked to 349 tons in East and Southeast Asia in 2025, a 48 percent increase over last year’s record of 236 tons. Ketamine seizures also shattered the previous record, jumping by 185 percent year-on-year, to 52.5 tons.
“Record seizures of both methamphetamine and ketamine in the same year are a sign that the underlying drivers of the regional drug trafficking trade remain firmly in place,” Delphine Schantz, the UNODC’s regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said in a statement accompanying the report’s release.
“As production capacity, trafficking networks, and demand expand, it is clear that the market is not contracting, but rather consolidating and expanding into new areas,” she added.
As in previous years, the majority – 94 percent – of methamphetamine seizures occurred in Southeast Asia, “highlighting the immense volume of methamphetamine trafficked through land-based and maritime routes in Southeast Asia,” according to the report.
