A new study demonstrates the general decline in the use of tobacco and cannabis among young French middle and high school students.
In 2018, more than 20,000 middle and high school students representative of adolescents in school in mainland France were invited to answer an online questionnaire on their consumption of psychoactive substances by the French Observatory for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT). The results of this unprecedented initiative, entitled In class show in particular that the use of tobacco is declining sharply in favor of electronic cigarettes.
Even if one in five secondary school students (21.2%) declares having already tried cigarettes, tobacco consumption remains lower during the first part of secondary studies. The study points out that this experimentation however increases sharply between the 5and at the 4and, going from 14 to 26.1%. The authors of the study speak of the “college years” as an “initiation phase” since only 2.6% of college students say they smoke daily. In high school, the result is the same: tobacco consumption drops drastically, by 8 points during life and by 5 points daily.
The electronic cigarette, a new experience
This decline in “classic” tobacco consumption among young people is partly offset by the use of electronic cigarettes. According to the results of the study, the experimentation of the e-cigarette concerns nearly a third of the pupils of 4and and 3and (32%) and more than half of high school students (52.1%). Highlight: 9.8% of high school students say they have tried electronic cigarettes without having smoked tobacco before, which shows, according to the authors of the study, a dissociation between the two types of consumption.
Like smoking, cannabis use also fell between 2014 and 2018. The middle school years are still not a period of significant experimentation with this substance, while high school is still a significant turning point: a third of high school students (33.1 %) said to have already consumed it, this rate rising from 25.2% in 2nde at 42.4% in terminal.
Alcohol, the first psychoactive substance consumed in adolescence
However, alcohol is resistant. Six out of ten college students say they have already consumed an alcoholic beverage in their life, which makes alcohol the first psychoactive substance experienced in adolescence. This rate rises to more than 75% in 3and. Good news: only 9.3% of college students report having experienced alcohol intoxication, which marks a significant decline compared to 2014, according to the authors of the study.
But in high school, alcohol consumption continues to increase: 85% of high school students say they have already consumed alcohol, a much higher rate than those of tobacco and cannabis. But the important point lies in the fact that reported alcoholic intoxications are much more numerous: we go from one in ten middle school students to half of high school students (49.5%). These behaviors are considered stable compared to previous studies.
According to the OFDT, regardless of the product studied – tobacco, cannabis or alcohol – boys’ levels of experimentation are always higher than those of girls.
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