In 2021, 64.1% had already consumed alcohol, 29.1% cigarettes and 9.1% cannabis, compared to 83.2%, 51.8% and 23.9% eleven years earlier.
The consumption of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis fell sharply in 2021 among French college students, confirming a trend 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 tobacco, alcohol and cannabis use 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.
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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.
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Decline in alcohol consumption: Covid effect?
For alcohol, still the most frequently taken substance, 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. We are therefore likely to observea slight bouncein the years to come, at least in terms of having already used one of these substances.
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The researchers also call for vigilance on electronic cigarettes, “increasingly popular among French teenagers», a phenomenon judged «disturbing“. There is indeed a larger proportion (8.0%) of college students who experience it without having touched conventional cigarettes, a new trend.