Le Figaro Bordeaux
Will crack and heroin users soon benefit from a special location in the center of Bordeaux? It is the subject of a long-running dispute between local government authorities and a source of concern for residents of Bordeaux’s Saint-Paul district.
While the term “shoot into the room“Considered extremely humiliating, from now on, twolow risk consumption rooms(SCMR) were launched on a pilot basis in France in 2016, in Paris and Strasbourg. These places allow drug users to use drugs in a safe environment. Changing their official name, the SCMRs became the subject of a new ministerial decree in January 2022, which allows the establishment of “addiction treatment centers(HSA) in the country.
These HSAs may be overseen by the Centers for Risk Reduction Admission and Support for Drug Users (CAARUD) and the Centers for Addiction Care, Support and Prevention (CSAPA). In Bordeaux, CAARUD is managed by the association La CASE, located on rue Saint-James. The Association has been appointed as the operator of the future consumption room, if any. The presence of the listed historical monument La CASE, a stone’s throw from the Great Bell, however, causes concern for local residents and damages the city’s image.
Daniel Pendanx, president of the Saint-Paul district association, believes that La CASE no longer has its place on this pedestrian and tourist street. “A street corner is obstructed by a warthog called La CASE– he laments. Users going to CAARUD sometimes have to queue outside, testifies this resident, for whom “It is not possible to stagnate like that, to fight with their dogs. The most beautiful building next to Bordeaux is pathetic“. A statement issued by the Gironde Prefecture, which considers that “Before building new SCMR-type hardware, we need to look at what’s causing problems today“Judging that La CASE”drains the populationdrug users who come to pick up equipment.
Give priority to therapeutic instructions
As intended, the placement of an HSA is therefore understood as “quite counterproductive“By government services that fear arrival.”customer» additional in the city center. If for the prefecture, then it is necessarygo ahead“, this does not necessarily pass through the opening of such an area;What we want to explore first is what can already be done before creating new equipment that doesn’t seem justified at this point. Among the solutions, the implementation of the therapeutic injection announced by the prosecutor should have been studied.»
The prosecution, with the support of the Regional Health Agency, is indeed considering the widespread use of therapeutic prescription. “This is an alternative to criminal prosecution“, which offers a choice to drug users.care or punishment“. This measure implemented in the 1980s had become unusable.because the heroin was almost completely gone“.
For the prosecutor, this solution will be more convenient than the consumption room, because the local court cases related to drugs mainly concern cannabis or even synthetic drugs (LSD and MDMA). Crack and heroin, at the heart of La CASE’s operation, “are not the main topic at all”, and therefore would not require the creation of a drug addiction treatment center.
However, barely reaching the helm of the city in 2020, the new majority came.”ask La CASE to reactivate the project“, says Veronique Latour, president of the association. Already considered as part of the SCMR experiment in 2018, the idea was finally abandoned by former LR mayor Alain Juppe. But for the new ecological municipality, the creation of a drug addiction treatment stop today will be “necessary“.
Source: Le Figaro
