The Antibes Juans-Les-Pins Hospital Center is organizing an awareness day on consumption this Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It’s an opportunity to revisit the most widespread addictions in France, especially aimed at young people.
The hospital teams and the city’s partners have planned informational activities and will offer advice about different addictions, from tobacco to alcohol, including illegal drugs like cannabis or heroin. The key word of this initiative is prevention, in line with the 2016 health law: “The law on the modernization of the health system (known as the ‘health law’) of January 26, 2016, has a triple objective: to promote prevention, facilitate access to care, and strengthen the health system. In the field of alcohol, the entry into force of this law thus marks the obligation of the person providing the drink to require the young client to prove their age of majority (whereas before, this verification was simply at the discretion of the beverage server),” the statement specifies.
The CSAPAs* and ELSA* will present the different addictions and their treatment, together with a patient association providing psychological support. A CAARUD* bus will address infectious diseases related to the injection of illegal drugs. A dietician will talk about food addiction, particularly sugar addiction. Finally, a nurse specializing in smoking cessation will offer a carbon monoxide test to smokers to provide insights into consumption habits and the degree of tobacco dependence. A conference led by the addiction teams will be delivered to the students of La Fontonne middle school, as young people are particularly prone to the consumption of illegal substances before reaching adulthood.
In France, problematic drug use among those aged 15-64 amounts to 241,000 users. Located in a central geographical area in Europe, the country is a strategic transit space for traffickers. But it is also a significant area of consumption. Alcohol and tobacco remain the most commonly consumed legal psychoactive substances, while cannabis is the most popular illegal substance. It is estimated that smoking-related deaths number 78,000 per year, with 49,000 related to alcohol at the end of the 2000s. Therefore, a day dedicated to awareness is not too much.
