Based on several surveys conducted in schools during the 2000s in New Caledonia and the survey on health and substance use during the national defense training exercise (Escapad), conducted jointly in mainland France and the overseas departments and territories by the French Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT), it is possible to paint a fairly comprehensive picture of the situation in New Caledonia regarding the use of psychoactive substances, particularly alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis, as well as specific substances such as kava among adolescents. Overall, this situation appears quite similar to that observed in metropolitan France regarding alcohol and cannabis use among young people, with 8% of adolescents reporting regular use of each of these substances by the end of adolescence. While usage levels for these two substances appear slightly lower, risky alcohol use is more frequent. Two distinctive features of New Caledonia are the narrowing of gender differences in risky use and the fact that heavy consumption is otherwise predominantly female; its consumption profile is much closer to that of French Polynesia than to that of the French overseas departments. In contrast, daily smoking, which affects 37% of 17-year-olds, stands out as slightly higher, while levels of other drug use are lower than those observed in mainland France. As for kava use, it affects 11% of 8th graders, 19% of 10th graders, and up to 38% of students in Apprenticeship Training Centers (CFA), with the rate of regular use reaching 4% among these apprenticeship trainees. Overall, these results naturally mask significant disparities among populations of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, whose lifestyles—and in particular their drinking habits—are highly diverse. [author’s summary]