Higher Logic

French Teenagers Smoke Joints As Often As They Drink Alcohol
April 14, 2004 | Agence France-Presse


French teenagers are among the biggest consumers of cannabis in Europe, smoking joints as often as they drink alcohol, an official study of thousands of students from 450 high schools released Wednesday showed.

By the age of 18, two boys in three and one of every two girls have tried the narcotic -- illegal in France -- the survey by the French Observatory of Drugs and Drug Use (OFDT) revealed.

"By the age of 16, regular consumption of cannabis reaches the level of regular consumption of alcohol," the authors said.

Their questioning of 16,833 students last year showed that, by age 18, 21 percent of boys, and seven percent of girls, were smoking more than 10 joints a month.

The number of 16- and 17-year-olds using cannabis at least 10 times a year has tripled over the past decade, according to the study, which is to be incorporated into a Europe-wide report set for publication at the end of the year.

"Cannabis is being consumed younger, is becoming commonplace, and the amount of frequent use is increasing," the head of the National Association of Social Workers in Drug Use (ANIT), Francois Herve, told AFP, commenting on the study.

The OFDT report also noted that smoking tobacco has declined a little in popularity among youths. Even though 80 percent had tried cigarettes by the age of 18, only around a quarter had become hooked, compared to around a third in 1999.

Other drugs apart from cannabis had been tried by only five percent of those surveyed.

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mechanix

"By the age of 18, two boys in three and one of every two girls have tried the narcotic -- illegal in France -- the survey by the French Observatory of Drugs and Drug Use (OFDT) revealed."

narcotic? did I miss a ****ing meeting when it came to changing the definition to a well established word? who is dumb enough to think weed is a narcortic? ****

HappyMan

The French!

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Mamabudz

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Main Entry: 1nar·cot·ic
Pronunciation: när-'kä-tik
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English narkotik, from Middle French narcotique, from narcotique, adjective, from Medieval Latin narcoticus, from Greek narkOtikos, from narkoun to benumb, from narkE numbness -- more at SNARE
1 a : a drug (as opium) that in moderate doses dulls the senses, relieves pain, and induces profound sleep but in excessive doses causes stupor, coma, or convulsions b : a drug (as marijuana or LSD) subject to restriction similar to that of addictive narcotics whether physiologically addictive and narcotic or not2 : something that soothes, relieves, or lulls

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nope...didn't sleep through the last meeting

Hugz,

Mama Budz

lilgrasshoppah

regimes are so keen on reinventing the meaning of words.

It's because, when you control the debate, you control the people. How many times have you introduced a new idea, and had somebody respond "I hadn't thought of it that way before"...? That is the prohibitionist's main task: to stop thought, to disrupt logic, to quell debate.

The word narcotic had a very potent meaning in the 1930's: conjuring up images of heathen chinese laundrymen seducing "innocent white girls". An image nurtured by prohibitionists thirty to forty years earlier.

By (I feel intentionally) mislabelling cannabis (as first: Marijuana, and second: as a "deadly narcotic"), the prohibitionists tricked the public into believing that marijuana was a Mexican drug (associating the plant with the poor migrant workers), and also had properties similar to opium. That was the subliminal racism. The direct racism came in the form of the libels and slanders invented by Anslinger and Hearst (who are probably bunkmates in the lowest pits of hell)... you remember the horsepucky they spewed: "Marijuana makes darkies think they're as good as white men." "Marijuana causes white women to have sex with negros, philippinoes and jazz musicians."

It becomes a handy labelling device to separate the "good" drugs from the "bad." Pharmaceuticals are good... narcotics are bad. Never mind that many pharmaceuticals are narcotic... and most "narcotics" are not! It's okay though, because "Narcotics Officers" are standing by to aid you in understanding.

And here is where you see the true application of "narcotic": with the people who are charged with pursuing drug criminals. The DEA, the office of the ONDCP, NIDA, DARE: these have a nation-wide narcotizing effect on the public. They make the people numb, sleepy, and unaware.

Cannabis Sativa represents the greatest threat to them.

Cocaine glorifies the ego.
Opium numbs the mind.
Psychedelics (LSD, Amanita Muscaria) have a steep learning curve.
Cannabis opens the mind, dissolves the ego, and is readily accessible.
If you look at confirmed potsmokers: how many had orthodox view-points? Look at the cannabis-using religions (example: Rastafarianism), not exactly what you'd call buying into traditional hierarchal modes of worship, are they?

Cannabis is actually an antinarcotic, which is precisely why drug fighters hate it so much.

Zodiac Toker

whats wrong with smoking as much as drinking

i smoke 1209u34047308 times more than i drink

Mamabudz

I'd bet this applies too...

French teenagers are among the biggest consumers of cannabis in Europe, smoking joints as often as they drink COFFEE, an official study of thousands of students from 450 high schools released Wednesday showed

...now doesn't that put it into perspective???

The French allow their teens to drink Wine and Beer -- soft alchohol -- at age 16.

Wine is a normal acoutrement at the dining table at most homes.

This report is just so much propoganda!

Hugz,

Mama Budz

HappyMan

I'm all for smoking pot, as my tenure here clear shows, but it seems like french teens may be smoking to much.....and yes there is such a thing as smoking too much too often.

reggie_the_dog

At 16 teens can legally buy wine/beer/tobacco, many teens/other people under 30 think that cannabis, like fine wine, is just one of the fruits that makes life good. On paper the law here says possession of any amount of cannabis is 1 to 10 years in jail, in reality police just caution users (they still put sellers in jail though). Here in Paris people smoke joints in the street all over the city (a little less by the tourist hot spots). We have a lot of people from north Africa and the middle east here that smoke hashish as a part of the culture that have brought here with them. Things are changing here though, the right wing government has said that they will be moving to change possession of less that 20 grams to a fine of somewhere between 64 and 1500 (big variation here) euros. The right wing health minister has said he supports a regulated and taxed legalization of cannabis so we will have to see which plan they adopt.
What they really have to change is the law that says you get 20 years if you cultivate one plant. If they do that we can cut the hash from Morocco out of the picture and grow our own.....thereby keeping more money in France....


Keep in mind that the report that was in the Parisian newspapers said that 21 percent of teenage boys and 7 percent of teenage girls were smoking cannabis at least 4 times A WEEK by the age of 18. The same study said that boys of the same age drank regurlarly at a rate of 22 percent and the for girls the rate of alcohol drinking was 7 percent like it was for cannabis. Basically this study is just summing up the reality that cannabis use is very popular among the younger generations of French people. At the university I am a student at people smoke joints in the tobacco smoking areas just outside the doors like it isnt even an issue, perhaps they have taken too many vacations to Spain or the Netherlands but I hope this kind of behavior leads to a change in the laws here soon.

PS YOU CAN BUY HIGH QUALITY CANNABIS SEEDS IN STORES HERE IN THE SUBURBS OF PARIS ALONG WITH GROW EQUIPMENT, it just says DO NOT GERMENATE on the package

one step at a time

PlantMan

This stuck out like a sore thumb to me, too. A narcotic? Marijuana is not a narcotic.