The projects are slipping and the public authorities are passing the buck. In the absence of a Minister of Health, all support and care projects for drug addicts in Paris seem to be at a standstill, while the problem appears to be insoluble.
With the announcement of the creation of “addiction care” stops (HSA), promised by Olivier Véran in September when he was still Minister of Health, all the public authorities in charge of the crack plan in Paris had welcomed of this great progress in the thorny file of the care of drug addicts. But the tide has since turned.
Backtracking on “addiction treatment” stops”
On June 9, Olivier Véran had finally explained that there would be “no other “addiction care” stops or shooting rooms in Paris”, considering that it was “not the appropriate response in this city. “. A slap in the back of the neck for all the associations working with this largely deprived population.
The experimentation in France of these “addiction care” stops” was however published in the Official Journal of January 26, 2022, then qualified as “area of risk reduction by supervised use and access to care” responding precisely “to the risk and harm reduction policy for drug users”.
“It comes to extend the experimental device called “consumption rooms at lower risk” (SCMR), which gave rise to the opening of two places in Paris and Strasbourg in October and November of the same year”, specified the Official Journal, evoking the only two consumption rooms – roughly called “shooting rooms” – open in France.
Devices to be extended to the whole territory therefore, if we were to believe the words of Olivier Véran on this subject, who relied on various studies showing “that this type of device is adapted to the care of injecting users of the most vulnerable psychoactive substances, accumulating the risks of precariousness and disease…”.
Except that the departure of Olivier Véran, now Minister Delegate in charge of Relations with Parliament, and the resignation of Brigitte Bourguignon, who had been appointed in May to replace him at the Ministry of Health, completely put a stop to all these projects. Worse, no service seems to be able to express the State’s political line on this subject.
Stalled projects and deep disappointments
So much so that the defenders and opponents of these projects no longer know where to turn. But everyone is waiting for the State to make decisions: on the subject of the care of drug addicts who have been living at Porte de la Villette since September, on the opening of new HSAs, on the opening of a care center for drug addicts in the premises of the Chardon-Lagache hospital (16th).
Again in mid-June, Anne Souyris, assistant to the town hall of Paris in charge of public health, had questioned the prefect of Paris and Ile-de-France on this subject, “to relaunch the management of the crack plan of which he has the charge”. “Our mobilization has borne the first fruits, let’s continue them, let’s create HSA care structures and fight against trafficking,” she said at the time.
I challenged the prefect of Paris, prefect of the Ile-de-France region to relaunch the management of the plan #crack of which he is responsible. Our mobilization has borne the first fruits, let’s continue them, let’s create care structures #HSA and fight against trafficking. pic.twitter.com/rP4KCBT7hi
— Anne Souyris (@annesouyris) June 13, 2022
Today, the elected official – who assures the Parisian that the opening of new reception and care structures is “the only solution, unless you put all drug users in prison” – is disappointed with this reversal. “I am angry at the lack of courage of this government. They used demagoguery so as not to lose the elections, ”she explained to our colleagues.
A disappointment all the greater since everyone seemed to agree a few months ago on the opening of new structures. For months, Anne Hidalgo’s team has been carrying out the project of opening, not new “shooting rooms”, but small day care centers, which make it possible to offer social and medical support. drug addicts, as well as shelters to get them off the streets.
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In the 16th district, residents opposed to the opening of a reception center for drug addicts are lost. Planning to gather this Thursday, June 23 in front of what was to be the future care center for drug addicts, installed at 1, rue Chardon-Lagache in the former premises of the hospital of the same name, they finally decided to cancel their mobilization. , and to organize a large gathering this Sunday in front of the Town Hall. Hoping that a new Minister of Health will have been appointed by then.
They are afraid to see crack consumers, who are more accustomed to neighborhoods in the northeast of Paris, arriving in their neighborhood. And if several elected officials announced that this project was “blocked”, without any official communication being able to confirm this information, no one is able to say if “blocked” means “repealed”. When in doubt, they continue the fight.
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