Drug scene in Frankfurt: It's the city's turn

Whenever you walk through Frankfurt's Bahnhofsviertel, it's hard to believe that this manageable area will ever be a place where people like to stay longer than they absolutely have to.

It was once supposed to be considered a "scene district" with its bars, lofts and restaurants.

But most of the streets are still dominated by one image: excessive drug consumption, which has long since ceased to take place in the printing rooms and has increasingly shifted to the sidewalks.

The fact that the police and the judiciary are now trying to use a new model to start where their responsibility lies, namely in the fight against drug-related crime, is a step in the right direction.

But one who is late.

And which, above all, will have little effect as long as the responsible politicians in the city do not cooperate.

problem for years only managed

In the end, repression alone is not enough.

Because where there are buyers, there will always be dealers.

And nothing is more convenient for them than being able to serve all customers in the smallest possible space.

It is becoming increasingly clear how difficult it is to bring the years of neglect in Frankfurt's drug policy back into an acceptable state.

But that is apparently the price that the problem was only managed for years, not solved.

One increasingly wonders what actually happens to all the money that goes to the city's drug aid organization?

And why the responsible health department has not managed to create structures that have long been successful in other cities.

The Zurich model, which seemed promising, was quietly dropped.

Instead, mostly only stoic reference is made to the Frankfurt way.

But this failed a long time ago.

When public pressure gets too great, politicians like to point to the police and judiciary, who are supposed to fix it.

Now they have done their job.

The city, on the other hand, is still a long way from that.

One can only hope that politicians will also understand that drug consumption in the way it manifests itself in front of everyone in the station district is not an “acceptable big city phenomenon”.

This cynical attitude does not do the city's citizens justice.

And by the way, neither do the many dependents.