When do you start drinking and smoking? When will we first experiment with psychotropic substances? And how many young people continue to use it after the “test”? The figures published by the French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Tendencies (OFDT) on Thursday January 25th provide a message to these questions “encouraging overall”in the words of its director Guillaume Airagnes: the age of initiations – from “first times” – decreases, although these experiments always begin in the first years of study. And consumption continues to fall.

These are two of the key findings from the nationwide survey of middle and high school youth on health and substances. called EnClass, conducted by OFDT and the School of Advanced Studies in Public Health (EHESP) with the support of National Education. Between March and June 2022, approximately 9,566 middle and high school students participated by answering an online questionnaire in class. This is the second survey of its kind (the first comprehensive survey was in 2018). Supported by other national and international research, EnClass enables a comparison of the extent of experimentation and distribution of psychoactive substances.

Specifically, 43.4% of college students say they tried alcohol in 2022, compared to 60% in 2018. 11.4% said they tried cigarettes in 2022, compared to 21.2% four years ago. For cannabis, the numbers are lower, but the trend is no different: they represent 5.3% of students in grade 4 classes^e and 3^eto have tested this substance, compared to 6.7% in 2018.

Downward trend

Statistical photography evolves with grade level, particularly as we move from middle school to high school. Regarding tobacco, experiments in year 6 were estimated at 4.6%^ethen to 18.8% in year 3^eincreases to 30% in year 2^from. For cannabis: 16.3% of second graders^from say they ate it; Almost one in three declares this in their final year (31.2%). This also applies to usage ” a month “ Or “regular” what happened during the 3rd^e at 2 o’clock^fromexperience an increase.

Nevertheless, and this is the message that was emphasized on Thursday at the presentation of the survey, the two coordinators, Stanislas Spilka, head of the statistical department of the OFDT, and Emmanuelle Godeau, teacher-researcher at EHESP: the overall level of consumption of psychoactive substances is high in 2022 compared to 2018. A trend that can be traced over a long period of time since 2010 and that has intensified with the Covid-19 health crisis from 2020.

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