Adolescents in the Pacific territories have been the subject of recent socio-anthropological research conducted by American teams (Herdt, Leavitt, 1998), but studies focusing on young people in French Polynesia remain relatively scarce. Yet these various territories exhibit very distinctive characteristics, including within French Polynesia itself, which comprises highly isolated and sometimes sparsely populated archipelagos. French research conducted in this territory has focused on concepts of cultural identity (Saura, 1988; Brami Celentano, 2002; Trémon, 2007) or on typically Polynesian rites of passage into adulthood (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, for its part, been studied very little. Among the most visible forms, alcohol abuse is the leading cause of traffic accidents (Bourcier, 2001). To obtain objective data for observation and analysis, the Polynesian Ministry of Health and the Directorate of Health, along with 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 allows for an exploration of 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 use and ages of first use of 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. It also aims, in light of the specific socioeconomic and cultural context of French Polynesia and the changes that have taken place over the past decades, to identify certain characteristics associated with these practices, in order to draw conclusions and propose preventive measures based on the observed results.[article excerpt]