Results of the ESSPRI survey evidence a significant exposure to psychoactive substances among adult male inmates in mainland France, regardless of sentences lengths, irrespective of prison type and criminal status (awaiting trial or convicted).
These results raise the question whether health policies on the prevention and treatment of addictions should be adjusted to suit the reality of the use observed. The predominance of tobacco consumption, the leading cause of preventable death among adults, calls for intensifying the actions which are already being carried out in prisons.
The French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT) is a non-profit public interest group tasked with centralising, producing, and disseminating scientific knowledge on drugs that are subject to licit and illicit use, patterns of use, and addictions.