The demand for cocaine has never been stronger: 1.1 million people will have used it at least once a year in 2023 in France, according to the latest study by the French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Trends (OFDT) published this month. Wednesday, January 15.
This figure has almost doubled since the previous OFDT report which provides, with the most recent data, an overview of demand, supply and public response to drugs and addiction. According to this report published in 2022, France had 600,000 users in the year. Several factors explain this increase.
World production at its highest point
Global production has never been higher in Colombia, Bolivia and Peru – the three main producing countries – with 2,700 tons of cocaine in 2022 compared to 1,134 tons in 2010, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
This availability is also reflected in repression: French authorities seized 23.5 tons of cocaine in 2023, compared to 4.1 tons in 2010. During the first 11 months of 2024, nearly 47 tons of cocaine seized by French services responsible for the fight against narcotics.
Another factor: “the evolution of working conditions, with workers using it to “stay at work”, either to endure intensive activities (catering) or to cope with harsh working conditions (fishermen)”, he underlines. Ivana Obradovic, deputy director. of the OFDT.
Finally, there is the “diversification of forms of consumption, with the spread of base cocaine (crack) and the trivialization of the image of cocaine, a drug that has become “familiar” and perceived as “less dangerous” than 20 years ago,” continues Ivana Obradovic.
young adults
New this year: France now ranks seventh in Europe in terms of cocaine consumption.
If the price of a gram of cocaine has remained almost stable -60 euros in 2011, 66 euros in 2023-, the content has followed an exponential curve, with pure cocaine at 73% in 2023 compared to 46% in 2011.
The figures remain relatively stable in the case of cannabis, the most consumed drug in France, with 5 million users per year in 2023, 1.4 million regular users (ten times in the last 30 days, editor’s note) and 900,000 consumers daily.
“It is among young adults that there have been the largest increases in experimentation and use during the year,” particularly of stimulants such as cocaine and ecstasy/MDMA, says Ivana Obradovic.
A social cost estimated at 7.7 billion euros
MDMA/ecstasy use has increased from 400,000 to 750,000 people between 2019 and 2023 after using the product at least once during the year. Experimentation with heroin, a powerful opioid, continues to progress in France, with 850,000 experimenters (+350,000 since the previous study).
If historically heroin was obtained in strongholds such as the Meuse, now users can find it everywhere in France.
Furthermore, “heroin consumption no longer affects only the most vulnerable, there are more socially integrated people who consume it in a ‘snort’ way,” explains Ivana Obradovic.
It is estimated that the turnover of drug trafficking in France ranges between 3.5 and 6 billion euros per year. In a recent study, the OFDT measured the social cost (value of human lives lost, loss of quality of life, cost to public finances) of illicit drugs at 7.7 billion euros.
Source: BFM TV
