French teenagers drink more alcohol but smoke less
Are they less addicted to the fumette? In any case, young French people consume less tobacco and of cannabis in 2007 than in 1999, but morealcohol, according to the figures of the French part of Espad (European school survey and other drugs) What do these observations mean in detail?
90% of teens have already drunk
This survey is conducted every four years on the consumption of these substances by young Europeans. These observations were communicated on 2 February by the Inserrm and the French Observatory of Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT). European results will be disclosed in the first half of 2009.
First observation: almost 9 out of 10 pupils aged 16 have already drunkalcoholbut "only" 13% drink regularly, at least ten times in the last 30 days. Boys are twice as likely as girls in this case. The problem: these results are significantly higher than in 1999 and 2003.
On the right track
Teens have about the same rate of drunkenness over the period 1999-2007. Nearly one in two 16-year-olds said they had already been drunk during their lifetime and almost a third over the past year. However, repeated drunkenness is not so common: only 3% say they have drunk more than 5 drinks a night, and this has been at least 10 times over the past month.
What is more encouraging is that the decline in daily smoking, already observed in 2003, continues in 2007. At age 16, 6 out of 10 teens (58% of boys and 61% of girls) say they have already smoked a cigarette during their lifetime. They were nearly 8 out of 10 in 1999 (79% of girls and 75% of boys).
Girls, who tend to smoke more than boys, have particularly decreased their consumption of tobacco : 16% of them smoked in 2007 while they were 24% in 2003. The boys smokers pass from 20% in 2003 to 18% in 2007. The increase of the price of the cigarettes would have dissuaded the teens ?
French youth also consume less cannabis. Three out of ten 16-year-old students tested joints in 2007, down slightly from 1999 (31% instead of 35%). Regular consumption, more than 10 times a month, is also less common. It is 3.4% in 2007, after 5.5% in 1999 and 6.1% in 2003. But the trend remains the same: more boys are regularly smoking this substance.
In ten years, the number ofteens having consumed two substances (especially alcohol and tobacco) dropped significantly from 37% (1999) to 27% (2007). In total, 9% of 16-year-olds say they have never taken alcoholnor tobacconor cannabis during their lifetime.
2,800 16-year-old French students from 202 institutions were surveyed in 2007 as part of this survey, conducted every four years on a population of more than 35 European countries.
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