This Monday, August 30, Anne Hidalgo will meet at the town hall of the nineteenth arrondissement, elected officials, residents' associations for a new meeting on "the problem of crack in Paris", according to our colleagues

from the Parisian

.

No details were given on any announcements that could be made, but in the neighborhood, affected by the influx of drug addicts for several months, the exasperation is palpable.

A petition, launched by groups of local residents and signed by some 3,000 people, continues to circulate, while tensions are increasing in the neighborhood between drug addicts and residents.

Hostage residents

"What is happening is untenable," notes Marie Toubiana, elected Changer Paris in the 19th arrondissement with Le

Parisien

. According to this elected official, the inhabitants are hostages of a showdown between the mayor of Paris, who wants consumption rooms for crack addicts and the government, which is not in favor, just like the prefect of police Didier Lallement.

The mayor of Paris has been hammering home for several months and the beginnings of this crisis, his desire to open several reception areas for drug addicts allowing them to inhale to consume, in Paris - four or five, according to several elected officials of his majority - but also in the suburbs.

For this, it relies on the support of the Ministry of Health, Olivier Véran, who considers the results of lower-risk consumption rooms (SCMR) tested in Paris and Strasbourg since 2016 to be "positive", and wishes to modify the law to develop this genre. of structures.

Opposite, the prefect of police Didier Lallement recalled the opposition of the Ministry of the Interior to the creation of new “rooms where we drug ourselves”, while the Parisian right called for “compulsory hospitalization” of drug addicts.

Without waiting for the arbitration of the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, Anne Hidalgo had announced the opening "from this summer" of a "first place of specialized support for crack in Paris".

An attempt at a forced passage, not yet materialized, that healthcare professionals then observed with caution.

"A single place of consumption cannot accommodate several hundred people a day with serious care," said Abdou Ndiaye, deputy director of the Charonne-Oppelia organization, to AFP.

He, who oversees several centers for drug addicts in Paris, claims “several simultaneous openings for a very long time.

"

Society

Crack in Paris: The town hall and the prefecture irreconcilable on the management of drug addicts of the Eole gardens

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Paris: Where will the “crackers” dislodged from the Jardin d'Eole go?

  • Anne Hidalgo

  • Substance addiction

  • Paris

  • Olivier Véran

  • Gerald Darmanin