A resident of the popular district of Figuerolles in Montpellier challenges the town hall through an open letter on the fate of drug addicts on the passage taken every day by families on the way to school.
The children called it “the secret passage”. For their parents, it was a shortcut. For everyone now, it has become the passage of syringes. Marie Merieu who borrows it every day to take her daughter to school has had enough. In response to the mayor of Montpellier, who lives not far from there and who had published a nice photo of her son during the start of the school year, she replied with a very beautiful text: Hello Sadness. A text where this woman talks about life behind the bridge, “on the other side of the avenue de la liberté towards the popular district of Figuerolles which divides Montpellier into two very distinct worlds.
This passage, Mr. Mayor, which is very close to your home, is the passage of the forgotten, the invisible, the left behind, it is the passage of those who have been abandoned…
Marie MerieuAuthor of the open letter to the mayor of Montpellier
In this open letter, she adds “It is the passage of those we no longer want to watch because we are too ashamed to have let them fall like that, in this state, alone in terrible living conditions, left to their own devices. are poking around here, trying not to meet our eyes, hastily hiding their gear when they hear a child coming.
My daughter knows not to pick up syringes.
I would like to be able to tell my daughter that we are in a society that forgets no one. That these people we will be able to look them in the eye and restore their dignity.
Marie Mérieu salutes the work of associations such as the Caarud (Reception and Support Center for Risk Reduction for Drug Users). The problem: they are not numerous enough and do not have enough means to deal with the problem.
Within the association safe controlshe pleads for a lower-risk consumption room, as already exists in Strasbourg and Paris.
The town hall of Montpellier had launched a project to create a mobile care stop last year. A project which, like Marie Mérieu’s letter, has for the moment remained a dead letter.
