White powder is gaining ground in France, with record consumption recorded by the French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Tendencies (OFDT) in 2023: 1.1 million French people having used it at least once that year. . This figure has almost doubled since the previous OFDT report providing, with the most recent data, an overview of demand, supply and public response to drugs and addiction.
According to this report published in 2022, France had 600,000 users in the year. Several factors explain this increase. Global production has never been higher in Colombia, Bolivia and Peru – the three main producing countries – with 2,700 tonnes of cocaine in 2022 compared to 1,134 tonnes in 2010, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and crime. This availability is also reflected in repression: the French authorities seized 23.5 tonnes of cocaine in 2023, compared to 4.1 tonnes in 2010. Over the first 11 months of 2024, nearly 47 tonnes of cocaine which were seized by the French services responsible for the fight against narcotics.
France 7th European country most fond of cocaine
Another factor: “The evolution of working conditions, with workers who use it to “stay at work”, either to support intensive paces (catering), or to cope with the arduous working conditions (fishermen )”, underlines Ivana Obradovic, deputy director of the OFDT. Finally, there is the “diversification of forms of consumption, with the diffusion of cocaine base (crack) and the trivialization of the image of cocaine, a drug which has become “familiar” and perceived as “less dangerous” than 20 years ago,” continues Ivana Obradovic.
New this year: France now occupies 7e European rank in terms of cocaine consumption. If the price of a gram of cocaine has remained almost stable – 60 euros in 2011, 66 euros in 2023 – the content has followed an exponential curve, with pure cocaine at 73% in 2023 compared to 46% in 2011.
Stable on cannabis, increase in MDMA
The figures remain relatively stable for cannabis, the most consumed drug in France, with 5 million users per year in 2023, 1.4 million regular users (10 times in the last 30 days) and 900,000 daily consumers. “It is among young adults that there have been the greatest increases in experimentation and use during the year”, particularly for stimulants such as cocaine and ecstasy/MDMA, comments Ivana Obradovic .
The use of MDMA/ecstasy has jumped from 400,000 to 750,000 people between 2019 and 2023 having used the product at least once during the year. Experimentation with heroin, a powerful opioid, continues to progress in France, with 850,000 experimenters (+350,000 since the previous study). If heroin was historically obtained in strongholds such as the Meuse, consumers can now find it everywhere in France.
Furthermore, “heroin use no longer only affects the most vulnerable, there are more socially integrated people who consume it in a snorting manner,” explains Ivana Obradovic. The turnover from drug trafficking is estimated between 3.5 and 6 billion euros per year in France. In a recent study, the OFDT measured the social cost – value of human lives lost, loss of quality of life, cost to public finances – represented by illicit drugs at 7.7 billion euros.
France
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