2024-01-26 13:05:52
The levels of use of psychoactive substances among middle and high school students are decreasing in 2022. The transition from middle school to high school is nevertheless accompanied by a clear increase in tobacco and cannabis use. Electronic cigarettes continue to grow among secondary school students and are ahead of cigarettes for the first time.
The National Survey in Middle and High Schools Among Adolescents on Health and Substances (EnCLASS) is an online survey that takes place in schools, conducted by the EnCLASS association, the French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Tendencies (OFDT) and the School of Advanced Studies in Public Health (EHESP), in partnership with National Education. Between March and June 2022, 9,566 middle and high school students participated in the second edition in France, making it possible in particular to identify the school levels where alcohol, tobacco and cannabis consumption begins.
Alcohol, tobacco and cannabis: a decline in the age of experimentation and a continued decline in use
In 2022, experiments with tobacco and alcohol, and to a lesser extent with cannabis, still begin during the first years of middle school, despite the significant decline in the ages of initiation:
43.4% of middle school students say they have experimented with alcohol in 2022, compared to 60% in 2018. In 6th grade, 26.9% have already consumed it. This experimentation continually increases during schooling, and it concerns almost three quarters of final year students (73.9%). 11.4% of middle school students say they have experimented with cigarettes in 2022, compared to 21.2% in 2018. In 6th grade, experimentation with tobacco is 4.6%, then experiences a notable increase when entering high school, going from 18.8% in 3rd grade to 30.0% in 2nd grade, a relative progression of 60%. 5.3% of 4th and 3rd grade middle school students say they have experimented with cannabis in 2022, compared to 6.7% in 2018.
The distribution increases significantly during the transition to high school, where 16.2% of 2nd year students say they have already used it and almost one in three students in final year (31.2%).
If we observe a continued decline in drug use in adolescence, the consumption of alcoholic beverages nevertheless remains, in 2022, largely shared by adolescents.
Likewise, the relatively high level of episodes of significant occasional alcohol use (API), measured for the first time in 2022 among 3rd and 4th grade students, reflects the still specific place of alcohol among the youngest: APIs concern 14.6% of 4th and 3rd grade students. Among high school students, APIs concern 34.5% of them.
The perception of easy accessibility to drugs which increases with educational level
50% of final year students believe that it would be very easy for them to obtain alcohol and cigarettes if they wanted (49.7% and 45.3% respectively), compared to less than 1 in 5 students in 3rd grade (respectively 17.7% and 15.4%).
Accessibility of cannabis is perceived as significantly more difficult. In middle school, only 3.8% of 4th grade students and 6.8% of 3rd grade students believe that it would be very easy for them to obtain one, whereas they are respectively 64.5% and 53.3%. to indicate that this would be impossible. Upon entering high school, the feeling of accessibility increases significantly: 12.3% of 2nd year high school students estimate that it would be very easy for them to obtain one, almost twice as many as among 3rd year students. .
Use of electronic cigarettes (“e-cigarettes”) on the rise
The craze for e-cigarettes, observed for several years with the results of the ESCAPAD survey or the EnCLASS 2021 survey, is confirmed, particularly among younger people:
In college, daily use of e-cigarettes now concerns 1.4% of college students, a prevalence equivalent to that of daily smoking. In high school, daily e-cigarette use continues to increase, going from 2.8% in 2018 to 3.8% in 2022.
Thus, the use of e-cigarettes continues to increase among students with, for the first time, use ahead of that of cigarettes.
Download the results note to find out more (PDF file, 2.32 MB)
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