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The consumption of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis fell sharply in 2021 among French college students, confirming a trend that has been at work for more than a decade and probably accentuated by the pandemic, according to a work published Friday under the aegis of WHO Europe.
The researchers, who surveyed a sample of some 2,000 college students in mainland France, conclude that “an accelerating decline in the use of tobacco, alcohol and cannabis among young people”in a report published by the journal of the French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Trends (OFTD).
Of the college students surveyed, nearly two in three (64.1%) have already consumed alcohol, nearly three in ten (29.1%) cigarettes and nearly one in ten (9.1%) cannabis. In 2010, these figures were 83.2%, 51.8% and 23.9% respectively.
This work was carried out by several French organizations, including the OFTD, Inserm and the School of Advanced Studies in Public Health (EHESP), and is part of an international study program, overseen by the WHO.
The researchers also observe a decline in recent or daily consumption, whether for alcohol, tobacco or cannabis.
These results confirm a general downward trend over the past decade, but they also mark an acceleration of this decline.
For alcohol, the substance still the most frequently taken, the proportion of consumers is thus the lowest since 2010, and most of the total decrease is between 2018 and 2021.
The researchers warn, however, that this sharp decline could in part be due to the particular circumstances linked to the Covid pandemic.
This has led to the implementation of numerous restrictions, including several confinements in 2020, which have limited social interactions while these promote the consumption of addictive substances among young people.
There is therefore a risk of observing “a slight rebound” in the years to come, at least in terms of having already consumed one of these substances.
The researchers also call for vigilance on electronic cigarettes, “increasingly popular among French teenagers”a phenomenon considered “disturbing”.
There is indeed a larger proportion (8.0%) of college students who experience it without having touched conventional cigarettes, a new trend.