Struggling with Challenges of Today’s Youth: Non-medical Use of Prescription Drugs among Young People

This article deals with the non-medical use of prescription drugs among young people. It is based on research carried out in 2015 at the request of the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. These practices take place in a context of massive distribution of medicines and the medicalization of everyday life. Multiple medicines are being used to achieve several purposes. The result of this is blurred boundaries between medication, self-medication, doping, recreational practices and addictive behaviour. While non-medical use of prescription drugs is becoming more common among French young people, very little French research has examined these practices. Yet they raise issues related to the construction of self-in emerging adulthood. Using recent published literature and qualitative interviews with young people, this paper explores the factors that contribute to the non-medical use of prescription drugs and provides perspectives on their experience with these medicines. Overall, it aims to better understand what is the experience of these young people who use such medication and the dynamics of their patterns of consumption.