Illegal or misused substances: recent trends (2013-2014)

This issue is divided into two main sections: the first focuses on the highlights of 2013 and the beginning of 2014, with the increasing precariousness of a portion of users, the ecstasy tablet «comeback» in parallel with a more visible MDMA presence, an upsurge in the purity of the heroin circulating in France and the report of two new supply methods. 

The second section describes consequential phenomena that have been identified in the last few years, but are continuing to develop, and especially the rise in commercial herbal cannabis cultivation, the spread of ketamine use and the increasingly frequent use of morphine sulphate.

There is also discussion on the entrenchment of new psychoactive substances. In addition to the TREND and SINTES (National detection system of drugs and toxic substances) observations, this issue benefited from the ethnographic research driven by the iTREND (Internet Tools for Research in Europe on New Drugs) project. 

Finally, there will be special attention paid to cocaine, whose developing market and use is always closely observed given the drug's prominent place among illegal substances in France.