Smoking down, but alcohol consumption increased among young French

If smoking continues to decline among young people aged 17-18, while cannabis use has started to decline, alcohol consumption seems to move in this age group, indicate the results of a survey of 'French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT).

Tobacco and youth

The fourth edition of the Survey of Health and Consumption calling defense preparation (Escapad) was conducted among more than 15,000 young people aged 17-18 participating in the Day of Appeal and preparation the defense (JAPD) in France. The same self-administered questionnaire was also submitted in the overseas departments and for the first time in the Overseas Collectivities (former overseas territories), the report of the OFDT.

If we are to believe the report of the OFDT, the downward trend in youth smoking, begun in 2002, continued in 2003. Thus, current smoking (which includes daily and occasional smoking tobacco, both down) increased from 50.7% in 2000 to 47% in 2003 for girls, while boys, over the same period, it dropped from 49.8% to 45%.

This trend, recorded a few months after the rise in tobacco prices, says that "the measures taken by the government to bear fruit," noted Didier Jayle, President of the Interministerial Mission for the Fight against Drugs and Drug Addiction (MILDT) present at the press conference presenting the results of this survey.

Despite this reduction in smoking, it seems that the proportion of young people with signs of strong tobacco dependence (12%), characterized by the combination of smoking more than twenty cigarettes per day and smoking the first cigarette upon waking or before leave home, shows a slight increase.

First signs of a slowdown in cannabis

Cannabis remains in first place experienced illicit goods: about half of the girls and 56% of boys surveyed report having used at least once during their lives. And if this experiment increased slightly between 2000 and 2003 among 17 year olds (45.5% to 50.3%) between 2002 and 2003, there was a further small upward trend in girls, and that a slight decline begins in boys.

As for the regular use of cannabis, it also seems to show signs of shift to "confirmed in subsequent investigations," the report OFDT.

The free end of the questionnaire comments show "a wide variety of usage and context of consumption of cannabis, ranging from non-renewed lack of interest in daily usage and important experiment." However, "the majority of the uses listed in seems hedonistic and controlled practices," the report OFDT. Young people often insist on "the transitory nature of their use, they plan to give most often when they are adults."

Regular alcohol consumption increases

Another highlight of the 2003 survey Escapad: increased alcohol consumption of young people since 2000, particularly among boys (16% to 21.2%, against 5.5% a passage to 7.5% for girls), despite a stable "level of regular drunkenness measured between 2001 and 2003."

Alcohol is "by far" the most widely consumed psychoactive substance in the last thirty days in the 17-18 age group: its recent use for eight out of ten (76.2% girls and 84.2% boys ).

Just like alcohol, the use of psychotropic drugs is increasing, especially among girls, in which regular use increased from 2.6% in 2000 to 4.5% in 2003, while he remained stable "at a very low level" of boys, the report of the OFDT, which emphasizes the use of psychotropic drugs is due to a medical prescription in about half of cases.

"The status how the medication makes the analysis of complex data because it combines medical prescriptions and uses hijacked," said Jean-Michel Costes, Director OFDT.

Finally, experiments of illicit substances other than cannabis are "extremely low", although some grow slightly (poppers, ecstasy, amphetamines and cocaine).

In addition to the usual analysis of the consumption of a dozen psychoactive substances, the survey also examined the amount spent by young consumers to purchase these substances. According OFDT, an occasional smoker spent 8 euros each month in 2003, against 88 euros for those who consume more than 10 cigarettes per day. The average expenditure for the purchase of cannabis is around 55 euros while the young spend between 26 and 130 euros to alcohol