In the midst of a debate on the ravages of crack in Paris, and faced with the "positive" results of the two shooting rooms experienced since 2016 in Paris and Strasbourg, the Ministry of Health formalized on Friday its wish to authorize the existence of these long-term consumption rooms at lower risk. 

In the midst of a debate on the ravages of crack in Paris, is the government moving towards the development of "shooting rooms"?

The Ministry of Health on Friday formalized its wish to permanently authorize the existence of these consumption rooms at lower risk.

The ministry "wishes to perpetuate these devices in common law, in order to leave the possibility for municipalities to open new rooms", faced with the "positive" results of the two structures experienced in Paris and Strasbourg since 2016, explained the services of Olivier Véran to AFP, confirming information from Le Monde.

Projects in gestation in Bordeaux and Marseille

These rooms allow hundreds of drug addicts to inject heroin and other opiates with sterile equipment and, to a lesser extent since the end of 2019, to smoke crack in a secure environment.

The derogatory framework that allows them to operate ends in 2022 and sustainability requires them to be enshrined in law before the end of Emmanuel Macron's presidential term.

The creation of new rooms could thus be authorized on a case-by-case basis by the ministry, after consultation between local elected officials, regional health agencies, prefectures and prosecution. 

Politically thorny, projects of this type have been in the making for months in Bordeaux and Marseille and were put on hold during the last municipal elections. 

This sustainability has not yet taken place, however.

The subject must be arbitrated soon by Prime Minister Jean Castex, at the same time when the authorities seem powerless to stem the consumption of crack which plagues the north-east of Paris, despite a plan carried out jointly for three years by the city and various services. of State.

Faced with a degenerating situation in the Parisian district of Stalingrad, the police have been trying since the end of May to contain crack smokers in the park of the Jardin d'Éole, to the chagrin of residents.

Controversy in Paris

At the end of May, Inserm recommended "a national scale" of consumption rooms at lower risk, in a study taking stock of French devices.

According to this document, the two "shooting rooms" in Paris and Strasbourg demonstrate their effectiveness. 

The drug addicts who frequent them are healthier, have less risk of contracting HIV or hepatitis C and end up less in the emergency room.

The study also concludes with "an absence of deterioration of public tranquility" since their creation. 

However, Parisian and Strasbourg experiences remain very different.

Located within the walls of a large hospital, with few residents around, the Alsatian room is rather consensual.

But the one located in the capital, in the heart of the 10th arrondissement, continues to be controversial.

"Before, drug addicts injected themselves (the product) in corners of the neighborhood near the Gare du Nord, we were less exposed," said ADP Sophie, a neighbor wishing to remain anonymous. 

"Outside the room, things are not going well at all," continues the forty-something, exasperated by injections, fights and defecations in the middle of the street.

"Drug addicts roam our streets, without psychiatric follow-up or accommodation, and the authorities minimize what we are going through."

Riverine for 15 years, Cécile Dumas believes for her part that "the arrival of the room has rather made it possible to reduce injections outside" and appreciates having "a contact person to call in the event of a problem" with a drug addict. This documentary filmmaker "saw the difference when the room almost closed during the first confinement: the degradation was very clear, with many more injections." “What is clear is that with a single venue for Paris and its entire region, it cannot work,” she considers.

A speech also carried by Gaïa, the association managing the structure.

"Of course everything is not perfect, but it is because we are alone", argues its president Elisabeth Avril, also underlining the deficiencies in terms of accommodation and psychiatric care.

"Cities like Barcelona, ​​Zurich or Montreal all have several rooms", abounds the general delegate of the Addiction Federation, Nathalie Latour, who denounces "an ubuesque situation" in Paris.

"Marauding the Eole garden is already supporting the consumption of crack, but in dramatic conditions. Let us use the real tools at our disposal", she wishes.