France’s ‘high society’ has apparently grown, as experimenting with drugs has soared.
Cocaine consumption in the country exploded, with 1.1 million people having used cocaine at least once in 2023. This was nearly twice the 600,000 who had tried it a year before.
Ecstasy, also known as MDMA, was used at least once by 750,000 people, up from 400,000 in 2019.
850,000 people in France had tried heroin, up from 350,000 the year before. The powerful opioid had become much more available across the country.
Still, cannabis remained France’s most popular drug, with five million users in the past year. Of these, four million were regular users (consuming the drug at least ten times in the last 30 days), while 900,000 used it daily.
Just over half France’s population between 18 and 64 years had experimented with cannabis at least once in their life. Slightly more men had tried marijuana than women, with 57.6 per cent of men comparing with 43.4 per cent of women.
The French Observatory for Drugs and Addictive Trends (OFDT), an independent public body, released the new figures on drug use in France January 16.
Their report, Drugs and Addictions, Key Figures, highlighted the growing prevalence of cocaine and cannabis consumption.
The more widespread distribution of psychostimulants was one of the major trends of recent years, said the report’s authors.
As well as drugs, gambling was also on the rise, with people who had engaged in gambling increasing from 21 million to 24 million in one year time.
France’s fertility rate has dropped to the lowest level since 1918, with only 663,000 babies born in France in 2024. https://t.co/vPwxgMMeBf
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However, unlike drugs and gambling, alcohol consumption in France decreased by 2.3 per cent since 2014. Tobacco use has also dropped by 5.4 per cent over the same period.
Among 17-year-olds, the decline in drinking and smoking was even more significant.
Alcohol consumption in that age group had dropped by 3.3 per cent, and tobacco use by 15.9 per cent, compared to 2011.
Vaping was meanwhile gaining popularity, with 34.5 per cent of students in their troisième year (14-15 year olds) having tried it.
According to the OFDT, substance abuse was responsible for more than 115,000 deaths per year.
“In 2023, 246,000 hospitalisations were caused by an alcohol-related diagnosis. The social cost of tobacco is estimated at €156 billion and that of alcohol at €102 billion,” said the report.
Except for heroin, the supply of illicit drugs has risen sharply due to an increase in global production.
This surge included both higher concentrations of active ingredients and a wider variety of products.
Since 2008, France identified 450 new synthetic substances (NPS), of which 17 were added in 2023.
Global production was at historic high levels in Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru – the three main narcotics producing countries. The three collectively produced 2,700 tonnes of cocaine in 2022 compared to 1,134 tonnes in 2010, said French newspaper Le Parisien, citing the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
“This availability is also reflected in repression: the French authorities seized 23.5 tons of cocaine in 2023, compared to 4.1 tons in 2010. In the first 11 months of 2024, nearly 47 tons of cocaine were seized by the French anti-narcotics services,” it added.
Harsh working conditions have also pushed people to use more drugs, Ivana Obradovic, the OFDT’s deputy director, told AFP.
Another contributing factor was the “diversification of forms of consumption, with the spread of cocaine-based (crack) and the trivialisation of the image of cocaine, a drug that has become familiar and perceived as less dangerous than 20 years ago,” she added.
The price of a gram of cocaine had remained more or less stable, Le Parisien noted.
It rose only from €60 in 2011 to €66 in 2023, but the content had become more pure, 73 per cent purity in 2023 comparing with 46 per cent in 2011.
Drug trafficking in France generated an estimated annual turnover of €3.5 – €6 billion.
The social cost of illicit drugs—factoring in lost lives, reduced quality of life, and public financial burdens—was €7.7 billion, said a separate OFDT study.
