“The supply of drugs is everywhere, the purchase is largely trivialized and consumption is no longer a social marker.” This is the observation made to L’Express by Bertrand Basset, president of the Addictions France association. And the figures speak for themselves: since the beginning of the 2000s, the use of all types of drugs in France has increased, sometimes exponentially. In 25 years, the proportion of French people having used cocaine or ecstasy in the last twelve months has increased nine-fold.
The trend is global, with most departments experiencing the same phenomenon – including in rural areas. However, there are disparities. When we look at the data compiled by the police and the gendarmerie, we notice for example that in Bouches-du-Rhône, the number of incidents linked to the consumption of narcotics (per 1,000 inhabitants) has increased by more than three. since 2016. Conversely, this proportion has fallen slightly in around ten departments such as Yvelines, Lozère, Loir-et-Cher and even Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
This map is not intended to represent drug consumption by department with accuracy. On the one hand, it mainly lists facts related to the use of cannabis, the use of other drugs being more difficult for law enforcement to detect. On the other hand, it is only based on figures from the Ministry of the Interior and tends to highlight departments in which the public authorities have invested massively to reduce drug trafficking. However, it has the merit of showing the overall increase in drug consumption throughout the country – and probably in your department.