Introduction: The Escapad survey (Survey on Health and Substance Use During the Military Draft) has been conducted regularly since 2000 by the French Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT). The results provide a detailed overview of suicidal behaviors and the main associated factors in 2017, and track changes over the past ten years. Methods: The ninth round of the Escapad survey, conducted by the OFDT during Defense and Citizenship Day, took place in March 2017 among 39,115 17-year-old adolescents in metropolitan France. Results: In 2017, nearly 3% of 17-year-olds reported having made a suicide attempt requiring hospitalization at some point in their lives, and more than one in ten young people reported having thought about suicide at least once in the 12 months preceding the survey. A comparison with previous editions of the survey (2011 and 2014) reveals a significant increase in reported suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts among girls between 2011 and 2017. The variable most strongly associated with reports of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts is being at high risk for depression. After controlling for gender, school status, family structure, risk of depression, and parents’ socio-professional category, the results highlight a strong link between suicide attempts and psychoactive substance use, particularly the use of illicit substances other than cannabis among boys and daily tobacco use among girls. Conclusion: Our data suggest that psychoactive substance use could serve as a potential indicator for identifying an increased risk of suicidal behavior. They also confirm the importance of early intervention for depressive disorders in adolescents to reduce their impact, particularly on actual suicidal acts.