Planned to open in 2012 in Marseilles and in 2013 in Paris the “lower risk consumption rooms” (SCMR), more often called shooting rooms, could finally materialize by the end of the year. On the evening of April 7, the deputies adopted article 9 of the health bill which provides for a six-year experiment for these structures. It will still have taken four hours of “lively debates” reports The worldfor the article to be voted on by 50 votes against 24.
Intended, as their name suggests, to reduce the risks associated with drug injection, the DCRs also aim to offer drug addicts better access to care, as well as the possibility of re-establishing social ties. The SCMRs will be managed by professionals from the Carrud (reception and support centers for risk reduction among drug users), and will host multidisciplinary teams bringing together professionals from the health and medico-social sector.
In addition to the health benefits for drug users, the DCRs also aim to reduce the nuisance associated with drug use in the public space. An argument not always heard by local residents, who in Paris are always opposed to the establishment of an SCMR at 39, Boulevard de la Chapelle.
The Mayor of the Xth arrondissement, Rémi Féraud, declared a few days ago in The Parisian that his borough was “always willing to host the consumption room”. But the installation for several months of a makeshift refugee camp awaiting departure for England further complicates the situation.
Three SCMRs could participate in the experiment provided for by the new health law. Besides Paris, Marseille has been in the running for 3 years, and more surprisingly Bordeaux recently confirmed its participation in the project. This decision supported by the mayor UMP Alain Juppé had not failed to create a stir in the ranks of the party when it was announced at the beginning of March 2015.
Many UMP deputies were also opposed to article 9 of the health bill. Le Figaro recalls that Yannick Moreau had presented a bill aimed at banning SCMRs. The UMP deputy considered that this experiment would be “a very bad signal of the trivialization of drugs for young people”. Yesterday he denounced the “official artificial paradises”.
Marisol Touraine, for her part, had recalled that the objective “is not to trivialize, to facilitate drug consumption but to take into account the situations that exist, whether we support them or not, whether we see them or not “. In a statement recently the Addiction Federation pointed out that the first shooting room opened its doors almost 30 years ago in Switzerland and that according to Swiss statistics “Deaths by overdose were halved between 1991 and 2009. And over this same period, an 80% reduction in mortality due to AIDS among drug addicts has been observed. »
First published on April 08, 2015
