The use of drugs, cannabis or other illicit products, as well as the consumption of alcohol and tobacco, is on the decline among 17-year-olds, says the French Observatory for Drugs and Addictive Tendencies (OFDT) in a new study published this Thursday . .
Downward trends around cigarettes, alcohol and cannabis
23,000 17-year-olds were interviewed in March 2022 as part of the 9th Escapad study carried out during the defense preparation call days and the finding is optimistic: “All levels of drug use have decreased”, celebrates the OFDT, which highlights in particular a clear decrease. in smoking.
“In 2022, less than one in two 17-year-olds said they had ever smoked at least one cigarette”, that is, 13% less than in 2017, the date of the previous study, and 15.6% said they smoked on a daily basis, a 10-point decline in five years.
With nearly one in five teens stating that they have never drunk alcohol and fewer than one in two stating that they have never been drunk, the OFDT sees a “general decline” in alcohol consumption, even if “significant occasional drinking (API) persists and becomes widespread”. The same downward trend is observed for cannabis, which is consumed twice less regularly or daily, as well as for illicit drugs, which register a notable decrease compared to 2017.
CBD and the fashionable electronic cigarette
On the other hand, two new practices have gained popularity among young people: the electronic cigarette, the use of which has tripled in five years and has even multiplied by six just for girls, and cannabidiol (CBD), which was part of the questionnaire for the first time, experienced by more than 17% of the young people surveyed.
The OFDT study points to a disparity in consumption practices according to the school situation of young people, with “higher levels of frequent use among adolescents in learning and those who have left the school system compared to students who attend secondary school”.
A state of deteriorating mental health.
Despite the health crisis linked to Covid-19, which limited the moments of sociability favorable to experimenting with drugs, there would not have been a “catch-up effect”: “these minor uses seem to be permanently inscribed in the behavior of the adolescent population”, advances the OFDT.
It points out, however, that the state of health of adolescents has deteriorated, particularly in the field of mental health. Disorders related to anorexia, obesity and anxiety-depressive syndromes have increased considerably.
Source: BFM TV
