Prevalence of drug use in French seamen

The main objective of the present study is to determine the prevalence of lifetime use and use in the past 30 days of narcotics in French seamen and to assess factors correlated with positive urine test in seamen as a whole. A stratified survey conducted in 19 French ports collected 1,928 self-administered questionnaires on cigarette, alcohol and narcotics consumption. Seafarers were randomly selected and interviewed during their annual seafaring aptitude consultation. Only the 1847 male respondents were included in analysis. Nearly half of the seamen had tried cannabis at some point in their life, and 16% were users in the past 30 days. Lifetime use of certain other illegal drugs (cocaine, heroin, hallucinogenic mushrooms, poppers and ecstasy) was non-negligible, but cocaine and heroin were the only ones showing exceptional prevalence of consumption over the previous 30 days. Lifetime use of drugs was non-negligible among seamen. Prevalence of recent cannabis use was elevated. Recent consumption as indicated by positive urine test correlated with age group, family situation, occupational category, geographical area, young age of first alcohol consumption and experimentation with other drugs.

► Cannabis use in the past 30 days is about 16% in French seamen.
► Lifetime drug use is important, more especially for merchant seamen.
► Preventive actions should be undertaken during seafaring aptitude consultations.
► Preventive actions should be undertaken during maritime school courses.