Drug use among 17-year-olds
Results of the 2008 ESCAPAD survey

Tendances n° 66, OFDT, 6 p.
June 2009

For eight years now, in partnership with the Direction du service national (DSN: National Service Department), the OFDT has carried out a national statistical survey among 17-year-old teenagers: ESCAPAD. This survey is carried out during the Journée d’appel de préparation à la défense (JAPD: Day of defense preparation). It focuses on health, drug use and lifestyles. As it is representative of teenagers aged 17, to a certain extent it is complementary to the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children survey (HBSC) and the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD) in addition to the surveys focusing on the adult population, such as the Baromètre Santé (Health Barometer).
This issue of Tendances presents the usage levels for the main psychoactive substances used in France (around 15 in all, both legal and illegal) and the changes witnessed over an eight-year period. For alcohol, tobacco and cannabis, it also describes the initial results emerging from the study of new questions on the reasons behind the use and non-use of these substances, or the willingness to seek help or information in order to reduce or cease cannabis use. Finally, the use of the main pharmaceutical classes of psychotropic medicines is described here for the first time.

Authors :
Stéphane Legleye, Stanislas Spilka, Olivier Le Nézet, Cécile Laffiteau

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