The adverse effects of alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana have been debated and tested for many years. As a result, a group of France's best student-athletes took a survey regarding their use of these three drugs. Sociologists, physicians and psychologists determined the appropriate questions for this survey. The experiment was designed to compare student-athletes and non-athletes use of these drugs. Similar experiments have been conducted in previous years. The results from this survey will be compared to the results of the previous surveys to detect a trend. .
After the results were collected, they were divided into gender, and subsequently, age. The age range of this experiment was 16 to 24. The results were as follows: overall, a higher percentage of males used alcohol and marijuana; however, cigarette use was almost even between males and females. More specifically, older athletes drink more alcohol, males 16-17 years old smoked cigarettes less often, and males 18-20 smoked marijuana more often. Team-sport athletes drank alcohol more frequently than individual sport athletes; furthermore, the correlation between time spent practicing a sport and percentage of athletes who smoke cigarettes is positive. Lastly, athletes in international competition, as opposed to regional competition, smoke cigarettes more often. Overall, these student-athletes use alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana less than non-athletes.
In my opinion, this experiment is tainted by bias. For example, a member of the group sponsoring the experiment is a member of the Regional and Departmental Authority on Youth and Sports of South-Eastern France. Due to his affiliation with this department, it is beneficial for him to have this experiment turn out the way it did. If the experiment had turned out differently, it would have reflected badly on his department. Furthermore, this survey was only given to athletes in southeastern France, which does not necessarily reflect the use of the aforementioned drugs in other countries or other parts of France.
