Relegated for four months to the gates of Paris, crack consumers have been less talked about since, despite the mobilization of residents of the Porte de la Villette and the neighboring Seine-Saint-Denis. With this exclusion, it is as if the delicate question of their care had also become less urgent. However, Anne Souyris, deputy mayor of Paris for health, assures him: “We continue to organize meetings every week on this subject. »
At the end of August 2021, the City presented its new plan to fight the crack crisis in the capital. One measure has caused much debate: the creation of new consumption rooms. A solution finally approved by the government, and made possible by a law passed in the Assembly in December.
“But we are still waiting for its implementing decree, regrets Anne Souyris. I put my ticket to you that it will be after the presidential election. With this election, no one wants to budge, no one wants to take responsibility on such a tense and manipulated subject. That everything is frozen at this point, I have rarely seen that. »
Except that on the side of the State, it is emphasized that “we are still waiting for the locations where the new structures will be created”. In a letter sent this Monday to Anne Hidalgo, which “Le Parisien” obtained, Didier Lallement, the prefect of police, is even more severe.
He writes regretting that “for almost 5 months, I have not had any information on these alternative solutions that you seem to be promoting”. He even denounces these treatments which “are slow to materialize, which has the effect of prolonging the presence of drug addicts in the public space”.
Reluctance including in the majority
Precise addresses had nevertheless filtered through. But causing strong opposition from local residents, the City had changed its mind, especially for the place that was to see the light of day in the 20th arrondissement. Since ? It’s dead calm. It must be said that in addition to disgruntled residents, the City sometimes has to deal with the reluctance of elected officials from its own camp. François Dagnaud, the mayor (PS) of the 19th century, does not hide it. “We don’t need rooms where people will destroy themselves. I do not want to place myself in such a logic of accompaniment, ”sweeps the chosen one.
Despite everything, Anne Souyris continues to defend the City’s vision. “As long as we don’t create care places, I don’t see how we can do anything other than transfer and scatter the problem. But all that the prefect tells us is: Do you have another place to put drug addicts? But moving consumers is a way of never dealing with the phenomenon. »
“We need a mobilization of all the actors”
As always, the crack crisis therefore stirs up political tensions, with each camp assuming its responsibilities and inviting the other to take theirs. The City emphasizes having snatched from the prefecture the creation of 40 new accommodation places, without this being sufficient. She is also pleased to have finally obtained the almost daily arrival of a medico-social truck at Porte de la Villette… Devices almost all financed by the State, it is underlined on the side of the police headquarters.
A lack of collective synergy which seems to annoy François Dagnaud, himself criticized within his borough by several collectives for not wanting to create reception places on his territory. “We need the mobilization of public health resources. However, I note that these are the great absentees today, regrets the mayor of the 19th arrondissement. I also note that the crack steering committee has not been meeting for too long, always leaving out the elected officials and the actors of Seine-Saint-Denis. I note that Valérie Pécresse gave lessons to everyone during the regional elections, but what does she propose today with Île-de-France for this subject which goes beyond borders? We need a mobilization of all actors. No one is too much. »
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