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Drug use in adolescence: trends reported in 2022 - EnCLASS results

08.03.2024

The National Adolescent Health and Substance Use Survey in Middle and High Schools (EnCLASS) is an online survey conducted in French schools by the EnCLASS association, the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, and the French School of Public Health (EHESP), in partnership with the Ministry of Education. Between March and June 2022, 9 566 middle school and high school students in France took part in the second edition of the survey, which helped to identify the school levels at which alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis use begin.

Substances, users and markets in France in 2022

01.03.2024

2022 main observations of the OFDT’s TREND scheme, which has been monitoring emerging phenomena and developments in the field of drugs (markets, users) since 1999:

Home delivery of drugs, which had grown significantly during the lockdowns of the Covid-19 health crisis, continues to expand into new areas outside major cities. Some drug dealers have abandoned their outlets and now only deliver drugs at users’ homes. Although some of these outlets remain important, those dismantled by the police often reappear in the surrounding area.
In a highly competitive environment, building customer loyalty is a key issue. Traffic networks therefore use marketing techniques such as promotional campaigns with discounted offers and gifts, promoted by video montages or photos on social networks.

Pregabalin is prescribed for neuropathic pain, epilepsy, and certain anxiety disorders. Outside the scope of these medical indications, this substance can be misused by people seeking its psychoactive effects. The rise in the number of people addicted to pregabalin and the extent of the resulting health damage were of great concern to professionals working in social and health facilities in 2022.
At the same time, from autumn 2022 onwards, some TREND coordinating sites collected information on pink-coloured powders of varying designations: “Tucibi”, “pink cocaine” or, more rarely, “tussi” or “Chinese coke”. Contrary to what these names suggest, the product contains neither cocaine not 2-CB2. It is a mixture of other psychoactive substances, most commonly ketamine and MDMA (“ecstasy”). People who have tried it report hallucinogenic and stimulant effect of fluctuating intensity.

Gambling at the age of 17: results of the 2022 survey on health and behaviour during the call to prepare for defence (ESCAPAD)

28.02.2024

For the third time after 2011 and 2017, the OFDT has administered a module of questions in the ESCAPAD survey on gambling practices among 17-year-old adolescents.

In 2022, more than a quarter of teenagers had gambled during the year, and 4% had done so on a weekly basis. These practices are down compared with 2017. Lottery games are becoming less popular among young people. Despite the football World Cup, sports betting have returned to their 2011 levels in 2022. Finally, casino gambling is up slightly.

There have been changes in the ways in which 17-year-olds gamble; use of the Internet has continued to increase since 2011, despite the regulatory ban. This trend appears to be particularly marked for sports and horse betting. Around one in ten 17-year-old gamblers show signs of problem gambling that may require clinical assessment.

Gambling in France in 2022

30.11.2023

After 2020, a year marked by the health crisis - which severely restricted the supply of games - and 2021, a year marked by a “catch-up” effect, 2022 stands out for its high levels, with a strong recovery in casino activity and economic growth benefiting all gaming segments. These levels are the highest since the opening up of the market to competition in 2010, both in terms of the number of players betting on sports betting, horse racing, and poker, and in terms of gross gaming revenue1 (GGR) in 2022. The annual consolidated results show growth in gross gaming revenue for all gambling activities combined, compared with 2021. Similarly, the number of Internet gamblers (excluding lottery activities) rose by 6.1% over the period.

This performance comes against a backdrop of a return to a full gaming offer with the full reopening of casinos in 2022, after two years of reduced activity due to the pandemic. The lifting of the latest restrictions (in particular, the vaccination pass) has enabled the Française des jeux (FDJ) and the Pari mutuel urbain (PMU) to return to their full network of retail outlets and thus offer a gaming environment similar to that prior to the health crisis.

Given the exogenous effect of the health crisis on this sector of activity, data for 2019 has also been used to provide a retrospective view of the major trends in the gambling market and to offer a better point of comparison for a virtually identical gambling service.

Prescribing practices and use of opioid analgesics: a sociological analysis

27.11.2023

The study on the use of analgesic opioid medicines (EMOA) by the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT) examines their prescription in general practice and the experiences of who consider themselves to be having difficulty with them in the treatment of chronic pain unrelated to cancer in France. Based mainly on in-depth interviews with 23 general practitioners (GPs) and 25 patients, it analyses, on the one hand, prescribing practices, by examining the decision to prescribe (and deprescribe) opioid analgesics and, on the other hand, patients’ medication pathways, by examining the place of these drugs in their life and health trajectories. This research analyses the difficulties encountered by doctors in the prescribing process (particularly in stopping or continuing prescriptions when they are not responsible for initiating them), and those associated with prolonged, regular, or recurrent use by patients.

Opioid substitution treatment in France: 2023 report

23.11.2023

The aim of this report, produced by the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT), is to present updated data on opioid substitution treatment in France. It is based on the latest available data, the year of which may vary from 2019 to 2022 depending on the source and the treatment period.

The first part of the report describes the sociodemographic breakdown of people receiving payment for opioid substitution medications (OSM) in primary care in 2020, as well as their treatment methods. These data come from the simplified generalist sample of recipients (EGBS) of the French National Health Insurance Fund. They are supplemented by the data on prescriptions and supply of OSMs in CSAPA specialised drug treatment centres (2019), data on the prescriptions and supply of OSMs in prisons (2020), and data of sales of OSMs in France (2022). The second part of the report presents data on misuse, deaths related to OSM drugs, and the sale of naloxone.

Tobacco smoking and tobacco cessation in 2022

20.11.2023

This report from the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT) provides an overview of the supply, uses, and the social and health consequences of the use of tobacco in France in 2022. The data are compared with those for the period 2017-2022, in order to cover the entire period covered by the National Tobacco Control Program from 2018 to 2022.

The first part focuses on changes in the tobacco market, both legal (tobacconists’ network, purchases abroad, duty free, etc.) and illegal (smuggling, counterfeiting, etc.). The amounts sold through tobacconist networks amounted to 40 134 tonnes 2022. They fell by 6.3% compared with 2021 on an equivalent number of delivery days, and by 26.1% compared with 2017 (with a stronger trend in bordering departments: -33.2%).

The second section looks at changes in drug-related behaviour. Among adults, the latest data from the Santé publique France survey showed that 31.9% of people aged 18 to 75 said they smoked tobacco in 2021, including 25.3% on a daily basis. Daily and occasional use remained stable between 2019 and 2021, while use during the year increased slightly (30.4% in 2019). The OFDT’s ESCAPAD survey observed a significant decline in use among 17-year-olds in 2022, whatever the indicator considered.

Statistics on people receiving care in specialised drug treatment centres in 2020

17.11.2023

This report of the RECAP survey (common data collection on addictions and treatments) reviews the main recent changes in the statistics on people with addictive behaviour problems accompanied and cared for by teams from specialised drug treatment centres (CSAPA in French). The RECAP data contribute to the Treatment Demand Indicator (TDI) that the OFDT provides each year for the EMCDDA European Drugs Agency.

In 2020, 267 treatment centres took part in the RECAP survey, out of a total of around 500 treatment centres, including their various branches, providing data on more than 203 000 patients, including 73 000 patients seen for the first time in a treatment centre in 2020. The median age of patients is 40, and three-quarters of them are men. More than half of the patients seen in 2020 consult a treatment centre due to the use of alcohol and/or tobacco (around 86 000), 17% due to their use of cannabis, (nearly 28 000), and 28% due to illicit substances other than cannabis (46 000 patients). Of these, 41% use heroin and 29% use cocaine.

Quitting smoking: a review of the social science publications

16.11.2023

This review of the social science publications on trajectories to quit smoking begins with an account of surveys looking at methods used to help smokers quit and professionals involved in helping them. The second part of the report deals with studies analysing the impact of socioeconomic variables on smoking behaviour and/or cessation.

The social cost of drugs: an estimation in France in 2019

09.11.2023

This report presents a new estimate of the social cost of drugs in France in 2019, following a previous calculation in 2010. The results are not directly comparable, as several calculation parameters have been modified to take account of improvements in the statistical data available.

The social cost of drugs in France measures the monetary cost of the consequences of legal (alcohol and tobacco) and illegal drug use and trafficking during an average year of the decade. It is made up of the external cost (value of human lives lost, loss of production) and the cost to public finances (prevention, repression and care, savings on pensions not paid out, and revenue from taxes levied on alcohol and tobacco). The calculation parameters follow the guidelines of the Quinet report.

Alcohol consumption and its consequences in France in 2021

06.11.2023

This report from the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT) provides an overview of the supply, uses, and the social and health consequences of alcohol consumption in France in 2021.

It details changes in the market, taxation, prices, and amounts of alcohol consumed in France. The second part describes the consequences of alcohol in terms of user care and road safety. The data for 2021 are put into perspective with those for 2019 and 2020 (a year marked by the exceptional measures taken to curb the Covid-19 outbreak, which produced significant effects on the supply and consequences of alcohol consumption).

Drugs in Europe


2023 EMCDDA European Drug Report

The European Drug Report 2023: Trends and Developments presents the EMCDDA’s latest analysis of the drug situation in Europe. Focusing on illicit drug use, related harms and drug supply, the report contains a comprehensive set of national data across these themes and key harm-reduction interventions. This report is based on information provided to the EMCDDA by the EU Member States, the candidate country Türkiye, and Norway, in an annual reporting process.

  Statistical Bulletin 2023

The annual Statistical Bulletin contains the most recent available data on the drug situation in Europe provided by the Member States. These datasets underpin the analysis presented in the European Drug Report. All data may be viewed interactively on screen and downloaded in Excel format.

The European Union and the drug phenomenon

miniFAQDrugsEurope.jpgThe European Union & the drug phenomenon : Frequently asked questions, joint publication between the EMCDDA and the European Commission, october 2010, 12 p.