9:32 am: Alcohol, tobacco, cannabis… The epidemic has accelerated the fall in use among third-year students
The pandemic, with its procession of confinements and health restrictions, has reduced the social life of adolescents in France and caused a “significant drop” in the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis among third year students, according to a study published Wednesday.
Successive confinements, curfews, classes in half-groups … The pandemic created a context where “there were fewer parties, fewer opportunities to socialize, which undoubtedly delayed the experiments”, explains to the AFP Julien Morel d’Arleux, the director of the French Observatory for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT), which reveals a survey carried out among 2,000 third year students during the first quarter of 2021.
The Covid-19 epidemic has thus “accentuated the downward trends that have been observed for the past ten years” among the youngest, he adds. An “encouraging” development, while France remains among the top consumers of psychoactive substances in Europe.