Declining use among young adults, rising use among those over 35, and geographic disparities: What does cannabis use look like in France in 2021?

In partnership with Santé publique France, the French Observatory on Drugs and Addictive Trends (OFDT) has published the results of the latest Santé publique France Health Barometer survey, which examines the use of illicit psychoactive substances among adults in France. The 2021 edition of the survey, conducted among 23,661 adults aged 18 to 64 residing in metropolitan France and the overseas territories, presents the latest available estimates of cannabis use levels in France and the most recent trends.

These results show that, despite the decline observed among younger adults, annual cannabis use levels remained generally stable between 2017 and 2021. While cannabis use remains predominantly among younger generations, there is a trend toward older users. This variation in usage levels across age groups highlights the generational dimension of cannabis use.

Stabilization of cannabis use levels among French adults

In 2021, half of the adult population aged 18 to 64 reported having used cannabis at some point in their lives. It is the most widely used illicit drug in the population, with 18 million people having used it at some point in their lives. Nevertheless, following two periods of marked increases in usage levels (1992–2000 and 2010–2014), the proportion of current users (at least one use in the past 12 months) has stabilized.

Thus, in 2021, 10.6% of adults used cannabis in the past year, a level comparable to 2017, while use in the past 30 days declined very slightly over the latest period, falling from 6.4% to 5.9%. More frequent use, whether regular (ten or more uses in a month) or daily, has also declined: it affects 3.0% and 1.7% of adults, respectively, compared to 3.6% and 2.2% in 2017.

In addition to the results of the 2021 Santé publique France Health Barometer, the OFDT conducted an online survey that same year among 2,587 drug users, 2,447 of whom had used cannabis within the ^past year,¹ which notably allowed for a description of the quantities of cannabis consumed. On average, current users report smoking 1.8 joints on a typical day of use, a quantity that increases sharply with frequency of use: from 0.8 joints for occasional users (i.e., those who do not smoke every month) to an average of 4.1 joints for daily smokers.

A More Significant Aging of Current Cannabis Users

While cannabis use remains generally higher among those under 35, the average age of current cannabis users continues to rise: it increased from 25.1 years to 32.8 years between 1992 and 2021. This trend is the result of two combined factors. On the one hand, the aging of the generations of adults who reported using cannabis in the late 1990s—some of whom have continued to use it—and who are now between 40 and 50 years old. And, on the other hand, the arrival into the age range for cannabis use of the generation born in the 2000s, which is proving to be less likely to use cannabis than previous generations.

To better understand the evolution of cannabis use among adults approaching their thirties, the OFDT will launch, with support from the Fund for the Fight Against Addictions, a qualitative survey of regular cannabis users in 2023, aimed at better understanding the contexts and motivations of these adults who continue or resume cannabis use.

In southern mainland France, usage is well above the national average In the overseas territories, usage is less widespread but more intensive

Levels of experimentation and cannabis use across regions reveal a varied landscape. In mainland France, the Centre-Val de Loire, Hauts-de-France, and Île-de-France regions show lower prevalence of cannabis use. Conversely, Occitanie has the highest prevalence, with experimentation levels 8 percentage points above the national average, followed by Brittany, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, and then the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions.
In the overseas territories, cannabis experimentation is lower, with very marked differences from the mainland average, ranging from 9 percentage points below in Réunion to 25 percentage points below in French Guiana, where the rate of experimentation is half that of mainland France. In contrast, in the French West Indies and French Guiana, 30% of those who have tried cannabis have used it within the past year, compared to just over 20% in mainland France. Similarly, about 40% of users within the past year have smoked cannabis regularly, compared to 25% in mainland France.