Adolescents in the Pacific territories have been the subject of recent socio-anthropological research conducted by American teams (Herdt, Leavitt, 1998), but studies on young people in French Polynesia remain relatively rare. Yet these various territories exhibit very distinctive characteristics, even within French Polynesia itself, which includes highly isolated and sometimes sparsely populated archipelagos. French research conducted in this region has focused on concepts of cultural identity (Saura, 1988; Brami Celentano, 2002; Trémon, 2007) or on typically Polynesian rites of passage (Grépin-Louison, 2007). A few other studies of a more epidemiological nature have been conducted on adolescent mental health (Bourcier, 2001; Pérouse de Montclos, 2005). Substance use among young people, which remains one of the primary public health concerns in French Polynesia, has been studied very little. Among the most visible forms of substance use, alcohol abuse is the leading cause of traffic accidents (Bourcier, 2001). In order to obtain objective data for observation and analysis, the Polynesian Ministry of Health, the Polynesian Health Directorate, and the National Institute for Prevention and Health Education (INPES) developed the Survey on Addictive Behaviors Among Polynesian Adolescents (ECAAP). This is a school-based survey conducted in 2009 that explores the situation from an epidemiological and sociological perspective. The main objectives of this article, which is based on an analysis of the ECAAP survey, are to determine the prevalence of use and the ages at which use begins for various psychoactive substances (both legal and illegal), to measure changes in these indicators since the 1990s, and to compare them with the situation in metropolitan France. Given the specific socioeconomic and cultural context of French Polynesia and the changes that have taken place over the past few decades, the study also aims to identify certain characteristics associated with these practices in order to draw conclusions and propose preventive measures based on the observed findings.[article excerpt]