The consumption of tobacco, alcohol and cannabis of 16 -year -old adolescents has decreased dramatically in France during the last decade, such as young Europeans, according to the French Drug and Drug Addiction Observatory (OFDT), which presents on Thursday the results of a European survey conducted in 2024.
France is “now below the European average for all indicators of use” of drugs, tobacco and alcohol by 16 -year -old, according to the European survey on the consumption of addictive substances carried out every four years in 37 countries in the continent.
The decrease observed between 2015 and 2024 is “significant” in many European countries and “particularly marked in France,” says the OFDT. More than 113,000 16 -year -old Europeans, including 3,376 French, was interviewed for this latest edition.
3.1% of 16 -year -old regular smokers
In 2024, 20% of the 16 -year -old French had already experienced tobacco, one of the lowest levels in Europe, “said the OFDT:” In ten years, the proportion of 16 -year -old adolescents who smoke cigarettes every day were divided by five “, going from 16% in 2015 to 3.1% in 2024, joining the levels of the Nordic countries.
This “strong decrease”, observed in the “almost all” of Western European countries, reflects effective wrestling policies, in particular the increase in tobacco prices, analyzes the OFDT.
The experimentation of cannabis by French adolescents also experiences a “spectacular” fall: it was divided by three out of ten years, while French young people were among the largest consumers in Europe in 2015. About 8.4% of 16 -year -olds had already consumed it in 2024, compared to 31% in 2015.
To explain this decrease, the OFDT points out “the progressive” denormization “of smoking” that, taking into account the tangle of the two products, probably also promotes a undeformation of cannabis among young generations. “
Alcohol consumption is still high
Seven out of 10 French adolescents had tried alcohol in 2024, a level that remains “high”, although “France is in the third country of European countries that show the lowest consumption of alcoholic beverages,” the study also indicates.
The frequency of “significant occasional alcoholizations (API)” also remains high, both in France (22%) and in half of the countries that participate in the study (30%).
The other illicit drugs also attract young people much less: in 2024, 3.9% had experienced them in France, against 7.5% in 2015, a figure below the European average (5%).
Source: BFM TV
