LFrance is the leading cannabis-consuming European country, French users represent almost a quarter of all European users (22 million), according to data from the French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Trends (OFDT). Even if the grass market is growing and represents 30% of seizures, consumption in the form of resin remains preponderant, a national singularity.
After a downturn in traffic in 2020 in connection with the traffic restrictions linked to Covid, the market remains very dynamic and is on the rise once more very clearly (75 tonnes seized in 2021 versus 60 in 2020, according to the General Directorate of Customs and Human Rights). indirect).
The main consumers are young adults (25-35 years old) and parents of young children passively exposed to smoke and to products left within their reach and ingested: resin, space cakechocolate bars or sweets (gummies) containing the active substance (THC or tetrahydrocannabinol) in a quantity which may be significant.
An acceleration of the deterioration of the situation
In parallel with its trivialization and significant circulation in different forms, pediatricians in the emergency, pediatric and resuscitation departments have been concerned for several years regarding the increase in appeals for intoxication in small children (aged under 2 years), of greater severity (30% of clinical presentations in 2014 were comas) with the need for increasingly frequent ventilatory assistance (40 to 60 children admitted annually to intensive care since 2017, 75% of between them are less than 2 years old).
The teams of these units and the poison control and toxicovigilance centers of the national territory published several studies in scientific journals between 2019 and 2022 in order to alert, illustrate and confirm this worrying situation. The toxicological analysis in the same hair center of 41 poisoned children showed in 2020 that 39% of them had intense environmental exposure and physical repercussions (lower weight, more often comatose on admission).
Increased presence of THC in many products
The greater severity of cases of intoxication in children is linked to an exponential growth in the concentration of active product (THC) in the resin, this average rate rose from 9% in 2004 to 28% in 2019, according to the OFDT’s national toxic and substance identification system. Since 2010, more than 3,000 children under the age of 6 have been hospitalized for cannabis poisoning, more than half between 2016 and 2019.
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