• A lower risk consumption room was to open in October in Lille.

  • The project was stopped dead by the government after opposition from Gerald Darmanin.

  • Martine Aubry denounces a political maneuver in view of the presidential election.

Politics has its reasons that reason ignores. Lille's lower risk consumption room (SCMR) should have been open for a few days already. Everything is also ready to carry out this experiment with drug addicts from Lille. Except that Martine Aubry's desire to provide her city with such equipment met the firm and belated opposition of Gerald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior. The socialist mayor sees it, on the part of the latter, a "refusal to apply the law" motivated by electoral ambitions.

The project to install an SCMR in Lille dates back to 2016. In other words, the town hall, the Hospital Center (CHU), the Safeguard, the Regional Health Agency (ARS) and all the actors involved have had time to deal with the issue. topic.

It is therefore a very well-crafted dossier, fully meeting the specifications of the law allowing such an experiment, which was presented to the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, in July, after the latter gave his " agreement in principle ”a month earlier.

Proposals for “inane” places

The location chosen at 54 boulevard de Metz, backing onto the CHU addictology center, meets all the criteria of the specifications: at the center of places of consumption, with few residents, avoiding the lines of drug addicts in the street and close to the hospital. The Lille prosecutor even drafted, on September 24, the penal directive establishing the "white zone" around the SCMR allowing future users to transport the dose without risking arrest.

While he is not formally involved in the process, Gérald Darmanin has nevertheless expressed his firm opposition to the shooting room being installed at the location chosen by the city.

This "would be prejudicial to the proper deployment of the operation '' witness district '' carried by the Minister of the Interior since the summer of 2021", underlines the Prime Minister, Jean Castex in a letter addressed to Martine Aubry, Monday.

The prefect of the North had been tasked with finding another location.

“The two proposals that were made to us were inept.

The last being Saint-Sauveur whereas the decision of the administrative court makes it legally impossible to issue a building permit, ”criticizes the mayor of Lille.

A political issue

This legal impossibility, the services of the town hall explained it to the office of the Prime Minister. Without success. Jean Castex insists that the Saint-Sauveur option “be explored without delay”. “I do not understand that the Prime Minister asks me not to apply the law of the Republic. The directive must come from above, ”suspects Martine Aubry. The elected sees in the maneuver of the Minister of the Interior a political stake "which has nothing to do with health or public security". "Gérald Darmanin is the flag bearer of the President of the Republic to run behind the right and the far right for the presidential election," she laments.

Today, the SCMR project is deadlocked.

On the one hand, Martine Aubry sees "objectively" no other possible place.

On the other hand, Jean Castex and Gérald Darmanin do not seem ready to give in on the Boulevard de Metz.

"The ball is in their court, we wait," assures Martine Aubry, insisting that she was not going to let go.

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  • Martine Aubry

  • Substance addiction

  • Shoot Room

  • Gerald Darmanin

  • Lille