drugs: more than a million cocaine users in france by 2023

Drugs: more than a million cocaine users in France in 2023

January 15, 2025

This figure has almost doubled since the previous OFDT report, which drew up, with the most recent data, an overview of demand, supply and public response to drugs and addictions. 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.

France ranks 7th in Europe in terms of cocaine consumption

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 were seized by the French services responsible for the fight against narcotics.

Another factor: "the evolution of working conditions, with workers using it to "keep working", either to support intensive work rates (catering), or to cope with the arduousness of working conditions (fishermen)", Ivana Obradovic, deputy director of the OFDT, emphasizes to AFP.

Finally there is the "diversification of forms of consumption, with the spread 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 Mrs Obradovic.

New this year: France now ranks 7th in Europe in terms of cocaine consumption. While 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.

Read alsoIn France, one in ten adults has already used cocaine

Cannabis, the most consumed drug in France

The figures remain relatively stable for cannabis, the most widely consumed drug in France, with 5 million users in the year 2023, 1.4 million regular users (10 times in the last 30 days, editor's note) and 900,000 daily consumers. "It was among young adults that there were the biggest increases in experimentation and use during the year," especially 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 consumed the product at least once in the year. Experimentation with heroin, a powerful opioid, continues to increase in France, with 850,000 experimenters (+350,000 since the previous study).

Read alsoCoca, a psychotropic plant, was used in Europe long before the arrival of cocaine.

While 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 people who are more socially integrated who consume it by snorting it," explains Ms Obradovic.

The turnover of drug trafficking is estimated at 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 – that illicit drugs represent at 7.7 billion euros.

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