Drug use in France surges to record high

French people are taking drugs at a record level in every category and substance, a nationwide study has found.

The survey, carried out by l’Observatoire français des drogues et des tendances addictives (OFDT) shows cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and amphetamine use have all risen in comparison to the same study conducted in 2017. 

The OFDT is particularly concerned by the rise in cocaine use – 9.4% of people aged 18 to 75 have consumed cocaine at least once in their life, against 5.6% in 2017. This was the greatest increase in consumption among all substances, except cannabis.

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Half of all people have consumed drugs

“The increase of cocaine requires great vigilance and can be explained by a combination of several factors; greater availability, diminishing perception of its risk and a diversification of motivations for consumption, for example in an attempt to cope with difficult working conditions,” said Guillaume Airagnes, director of the OFDT.

“There is an overabundance of supply, manifested by the purest cocaine we have ever recorded,” Ivana Obradovic, OFDT’s deputy director, confirmed to Le Monde last year. 

“And all for a relatively cheap price of around €50 to €70 per gram,” she said. 

More broadly, more than half of the population has consumed at least one drug during their life (50.4%). In 2012, only 32.9% of people had taken drugs at least once in their life, up from 12.7% 20 years earlier.

The research also found that 10.8% of people have taken drugs at least once over the past year, while 3.4% are regular users.

Some 2.7% had taken cocaine, 1.8% ecstasy, 4.3% methamphetamines and 0.3% heroin at least once during the year – all up on 2017’s results.

The drugs being taken have diversified as well. The European Union Drugs Agency was reporting one new substance per week in 2021. 

Read more: British driver given €1m fine for transporting drugs through France

Younger generations becoming more cautious

It was not all bad news, however.

Figures suggest that younger generations are more cautious about drug consumption. 

Only 1.4% of teenagers and young adults claimed to have used drugs in 2022 – down 50% on 2017, the OFDT reported.

And however bleak the numbers, they pale in comparison to latest figures from the US where half of the population above 12 years old have consumed at least once and 700,000 have overdosed since 2000, the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics reported.

The consumption of fentanyl, a highly potent synthetic piperidine opioid, is a particular cause of concern in the US at present, with more than 74,000 people having overdosed in 2023. Oregon declared a 90-day state of emergency last January to combat it.

Fentanyl use is relatively benign in France but authorities have cracked down on several networks. The first arrest was reported in Loire-Atlantique in May 2023.