How do the French perceive heroin users?

It was conducted over the phone among a sample of 2,002 people ageing from 15 to 75, selected by the quota method, as a representative cross-section of French population. 

That is why eight questions dealt with the respondents opinions about heroin users, a minority group among users of illicit drugs, yet supposed to make up the typical figure of drug users as the French perceive or imagine the latter. The range of the answers collected could be brought down to six types of perception as regards heroin users: a qualified or uncertain majority (38%), those who perceive an "heroin-addiction danger" (24%), those who show a restrained (13%) or an open (8%) discrimination, those who refuse to condemn (12%) and those who "dont know" (5%). 

The analysis reveals coherent and contrasted perceptions in relation to sociodemographic profiles where the age-bracket and the education level especially make the difference. The qualified or uncertain majority particularly relates to young and educated individuals, whose closeness to illicit drugs is neither more nor less important than others. 

The way heroin users are perceived coincide as well with clear-cut opinions upon the public policy carried out as with measures to be considered: each time users create hostility or concern, the respondent favours a more repressive and coercive policy. 

Only one surveyed out of ten refuses to condemn heroin-addicts. Among the nine others, half of them have qualified or uncertain opinions, and perhaps no opinion at all, and the other half adopts perceptions opposed to heroin users.