Who reaches the door: referral regimes, criminal procedure and the constitution of youth drug treatment populations in France

Background. Engagement in drug treatment is increasingly located in social conditions rather than individual motivation. One condition remains under-examined: the institutional route by which a young person reaches a service. Methods. Four sources are combined: national monitoring of the French consultations jeunes consommateurs (CJC), a youth-specific early intervention scheme created in 2004; administrative counts of people recorded as suspects for drug use offences by age, 2016-2025; parliamentary, audit and court documents on the fixed penalty applied to drug use from September 2020 and on an equivalent Oregon scheme; and recent research on treatment completion. Results. Criminal justice was the CJC's leading recruitment channel for a decade, and 70% of men attending had already been stopped by police. From September 2020 possession could be settled by a fixed penalty that closes the case without a prosecutor and excludes minors. Prosecutions for drug use rose 159% between 2017 and 2023 counting all outcomes, and fell 58% once fixed penalties are excluded, halving the route that contains every disposal capable of directing a young person towards care. Minors recorded as suspects fell from 30,761 to 12,948 between 2016 and 2025 while adults rose 94%, which the audit body attributes to their statutory exclusion. In Oregon, 85 of 10,028 cases recorded the screening built into the sanction. Conclusion. A procedural reform removed the capacity to direct young people towards services without transferring it. Studies should report the referral regime, distinguish mandate expiry from disengagement, and treat penal reform as an intervention on treatment systems.