Health. The French perceive tobacco and alcohol as more dangerous, but not cannabis and cocaine.

A survey by the French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Trends (OFDT) published this Thursday reveals a change in the perception of harmful substances by the French: compared to 1999, tobacco and alcohol are considered more dangerous, unlike cannabis and cocaine.

The survey on representations, opinions and perceptions of psychotropic drugs (EROPP) was carried out during 2023 in mainland France, on a representative sample of 2,718 people aged 18 to 75. "Tobacco and alcohol are now more often perceived as dangerous, including at low doses," specifies the study, which shows that 27% of those surveyed consider tobacco dangerous "from the moment of experimentation," compared to 22% in 1999. For alcohol, the proportion of those who believe that it only presents a danger "from daily consumption" fell from 84% to 71% over the same period.

Conversely, "the perceived dangerousness of cannabis is decreasing significantly": 38% of French people consider it dangerous from the moment they experiment, compared to 54% in 1999. On the contrary, the proportion of those believing that it only becomes dangerous with daily use has increased from 28% to 44%, the study specifies. "In 2023, and for the first time since the first edition of EROPP, there are more adults who consider that cannabis is dangerous from daily use than adults who think that cannabis is dangerous from the moment they experiment," it concludes.

Cocaine, whose notoriety has increased sharply in recent years (74% spontaneous mentions compared to 64% in 2012), is also less often perceived as very dangerous. Among people who have "already used" it, 74% consider that it helps "have fun and party," and 24% believe that it is possible to "live normally" while using it.

This study "highlights the changing perception of the dangerousness of substances, which is no longer based solely on their legal status, but increasingly on the practices and contexts of use," analyzes the OFDT. In 2023, only 20% of French people cite drugs among their main societal concerns, a concern that has remained stable for 25 years, overtaken by issues such as pollution, which has "significantly increased."