THE ESSENTIAL
- Between 2022 and 2024, most levels of use of psychoactive substances continue to decline, with the exception of experimentation with alcohol which increases again following a very significant drop between 2018 and 2022.
- In nearly 15 years, tobacco experimentation has been divided by 4 among middle school students and by two among high school students.
- In 2024, experimentation with alcohol concerns 54.0% of middle school students and 72.7% of high school students.
Tobacco and cannabis are less popular in middle and high schools while alcohol consumption has seen a rebound. Here are the conclusions of the study carried out by the French Observatory on Drugs and Addictive Tendencies (OFDT) in 2024 among 11,000 secondary school students.
The electronic cigarette preferred to tobacco
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Less than one in 10 college students (7.7%) admitted to having already smoked a cigarette during their life in 2024. The rate reached 30.6% in high school. Daily smoking is also particularly low with rates of 0.9% and 5.6% respectively. “These percentages are the same between boys and girls in middle school, but high school girls have experimented with tobacco a little more than their peers. Experiments have generally decreased since 2022, but not daily use – which was already in sharp decline then”specifies the OFDT.
If tobacco appeals less to young people, electronic cigarettes appeal to them. Its use is superior to traditional cigarettes. Nearly one in 5 middle school students (19%) and more than one in four high school students (25.3%) have already tested it. Furthermore, 6.8% of high school students use it daily in 2024 compared to 3.8% in 2022.
Alcohol: a rebound between 2022 and 2024
After recording a continuous decline between 2010 and 2022, alcohol consumption has experienced a rebound in recent years. 54% of middle school students had already drunk at least one alcoholic drink in 2024 compared to 43.4% in 2022. Same dynamic for high school students: 72.7% in 2024 compared to 68.3 in 2022.
“Experimentation with alcohol increases throughout secondary schooling: it concerns 37.5% of sixth grade students and up to 73.3% of final year students”note the authors of the report. Regarding regular alcohol consumption (at least ten times in the last thirty days), it is marginal in middle school (less than 2%) and 8.8% in high school. It progresses throughout schooling, going from 5.8% among second year students to 8.6% among first year students, to concern 12.4% of final year students.
Cannabis consumption is decreasing
Like tobacco, cannabis consumption is decreasing. Among third grade students, 7.4% have experienced it and up to 21% in final year. Regular use is less: 4.6% in third grade and 14.5% in final year have taken it in the past year. Boys are systematically more consumers.
Regarding other illicit drugs, 2% of high school students say they have experimented with cocaine, 2% with MDMA/ecstasy, 1.6% with amphetamines and 1.3% with methamphetamine. For nitrous oxide, which is at the heart of many health concerns, uses remained stable between 2022 and 2024. The experiment concerned 5.8% of high school students in 2024.
The dangerousness of substances varies depending on the quantity and the product
The study also shows that the dangerousness of all the substances studied varies depending on the quantity or frequency of use. “A majority of high school students see a significant risk in drinking four or five glasses of alcohol every day, but only a third associate a significant risk with drinking one or two drinks per day. The same goes for cigarettes: only 15.3% consider that occasional tobacco smoking constitutes a significant health risk”.
Drugs, on the other hand, are well perceived as dangerous. 82.0% of high school students believe that cocaine constitutes a significant health risk. The rates are 78.1% for cannabis, 75.6% for MDMA/ecstasy, 74.2% for amphetamines and 72.7% for synthetic cannabinoids.
“Whatever the substance, experiments and current or recent uses remain generally on a downward trend with the exception of certain uses of alcohol“, the authors agree. “These results confirm and consolidate the decline in the precocity of experiments with fewer and fewer middle school students experimenting with tobacco cigarettes or alcoholic beverages and who, when they experiment, do so later and later.
