Drugs at 17: a continuous decline in the use of tobacco, alcohol and cannabis

The French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Tendencies (OFDT) points out in its latest issue of Trends a continuous decline in the use of tobacco, alcohol and cannabis, with the notable exception of electronic cigarettes. However, the results reveal clearly higher uses among young people who have left the school system or are in apprenticeship and a significant deterioration in the indicators of the state of health of 17-year-olds.

For the ninth time since the implementation of the ESCAPAD system in 2000, the French Observatory
Drugs and Addictive Tendencies (OFDT), in conjunction with the Department of National Service and
Youth (DSNJ) of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, questioned in March 2022, 23,701 young people aged 17 participating
at the Defense and Citizenship Day (JDC) on their state of health, their consumption of products
psychoactive and their addictive behaviors.

A continuous decline in the use of legal and illegal drugs since 2014, which is confirmed in 2022

The consumption of tobacco, alcohol and cannabis has fallen sharply since 2014 and in particular between
2017 and 2022, regardless of the frequency of consumption considered. This probably reflects a
profound change in the perception of these uses, linked to the denormalization of tobacco and the change in
status of alcohol, which would no longer be systematically perceived as an essential dimension of
party in the eyes of new generations of teenagers.
For example, the continued rise in the proportion of teenagers who never drank alcohol during their
life has been multiplied by 4 with 1 in 5 young people aged 17 in 2022, compared to 1 in 10 young people in 2000. If the decline
regular use is notable, significant occasional alcohol consumption (API) remains high: a third
of 17-year-olds who consumed alcohol during the month experienced at least one IPD (36.6%).
Regarding tobacco, for the first time, less than half of 17-year-olds (46.5%) have tried it in
2022, compared to almost 60% in 2017. Although France remains one of the countries that consume the most
tobacco in Europe, this decline is also observed among daily users, around 15.6% in 2022
compared to 25.1% in 2017.

Finally, this decline is also observed through that of cannabis: 29.9% of 17-year-olds have already smoked
cannabis in 2022, compared to 39.1% in 2017 and 3.8% of 17-year-olds use it regularly in 2022, compared to 7.2%
in 2017.
In this regard, Julien Morel d’Arleux, director of the OFDT, underlines that “the results of the ESCAPAD survey
2022 confirm the downward trends noted in 2017 for all substances
psychoactive (tobacco, alcohol, cannabis and other illicit drugs). This reflects a profound change in
perception of these uses by adolescents but, no doubt, also the impact of the health crisis. »

A decrease which nevertheless conceals contrasting situations: increase in the use of
electronic cigarette, persistence of social inequalities and deterioration of the state of health

• The increase in the use of electronic cigarettes is significant and, for the first time, its levels
  of experimentation, use during the month and daily use exceed those of tobacco. This increase
  is also driven by predominantly female consumption: they show levels
  six times higher than that reported by boys.
  Stanislas Spilka, head of the Data unit and co-author of the study, notes that “these data
  not allow us to say that the electronic cigarette would have contributed to the decline in smoking among
  teenagers that began more than a decade ago. Its strong current growth, particularly with
  girls, might result more from targeted marketing that should be analyzed more precisely”.
• Levels of drug use are higher among young learners and among
  teens out of school compared to secondary school students. Young people
  out of the school system are 4 times more numerous than the pupils of general high schools and
  technologies to be daily tobacco smokers (43.5% versus 10.1%). Apprentices are 3 times more
  more regular users of alcohol than students in general streams (18.2% once morest 5.9%).
  Pupils in technological streams are almost twice as likely to be users
  of alcohol than pupils in general streams (11.3% once morest 5.9%).
• The health status of adolescents is deteriorating, especially among girls : 8.7% of 17-year-olds consider
  their “little” or “not at all satisfactory” state of health in 2022, compared to 6.7% in 2017. 18% of 17-year-olds
  had suicidal thoughts in 2022, compared to 11.4% in 2017 and, among them, twice as many girls
  than boys (24% once morest 12.3%).

To know more : issue 155 of Trends