Cocaine use nearly doubles in France: study

Some 1.1 million people used cocaine at least once in 2023, according to a report published by the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT).

The previous report, released in 2022, put the number of users at 600,000.

The new figures put France in 7th place in Europe in terms of cocaine consumption.

Record levels of global cocaine production and the drug's changing image were among the factors behind the increase, it said.

People are now using cocaine not just as a recreational drug for the well-off, but to cope with intense workloads or rough working conditions in blue-collar industries like fishing, Ivana Obradovic, deputy director at OFDT, told AFP.

The use of crack -- a solid form of cocaine -- is also spreading and cocaine is now increasingly perceived as "less dangerous" as opposed to 20 years ago, said Obradovic.

A drug that stimulates the central nervous system, cocaine is made from the leaves of the coca plant in South America.

While its price has remained virtually unchanged -- a gram of cocaine cost 66 euros in 2023, compared with 60 euros in 2011 -- the purity of cocaine is on the rise, with 73 percent in 2023 compared to 46 percent in 2011.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia -- the world's three biggest cocaine cultivators -- produced 2,700 tonnes of the drug in 2022, compared with 1,134 tonnes in 2010.

French authorities have seized more and more of the drug in recent years.

In 2023, France seized 23.5 tonnes of cocaine, compared with 4.1 tonnes in 2010.

In the first 11 months of 2024, nearly 47 tonnes of cocaine were seized.
Heroin
The use of heroin and the mind-altering drug MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, is also on the rise, the report said.

MDMA use has jumped from 400,000 to 750,000 people between 2019 and 2023, according to the study.

"It was among young adults that there were the biggest increases in experimentation and use during the year," particularly of stimulants such as cocaine and MDMA, said Obradovic.

Drug experimentation involving heroin, an extremely potent opioid, is also on the rise in France, with the number of users estimated at 850,000 people, a rise of 350,000 consumers compared with the previous study.

"The use of heroin is no longer confined to the most disadvantaged sections of society," Obradovic said, adding that "more socially integrated" individuals often prefer to sniff it.

While in the past heroin consumption was concentrated in places like the department of Meuse in northeastern France it can now be found anywhere in the country.

Cannabis remains the most popular illegal drug in France, with five million annual users in 2023.

The rise in the drug use comes as drug-related violence spreads, with shootouts now erupting in what were previously quiet corners of the country.

Authorities have said drug crime is crippling daily life in France, and Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has vowed to intensify the fight against narcotics and drug-related crime.

Gangland violence long associated with big cities like the port of Marseille has expanded, with victims and perpetrators getting increasingly younger.

The illicit drug trade in France is estimated to generate between 3.5 and six billion euros a year.