“A positive assessment but not sufficient. During a press briefing this Thursday, Laurent Nuñez, prefect of police of Paris, drew up an inventory of the plan to fight against crack launched in the capital when he was appointed in July 2022. The first objective which had been set for him by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, to “put an end to places of consumption in the open air”, was achieved according to him in October 2022 with the dismantling of the consumer camp in Square Forceval, in the 19th arrondissement. .
“Since that date, we have been taking resolute action to secure public space,” insisted Laurent Nuñez. A police action “which produces extremely positive results”, he added under the approval of the public prosecutor of Paris Laure Beccuau, very involved in the fight against crack in Paris.
Between 600 and 700 police officers in the North-East of Paris
And since the Square Forceval camp was dismantled, between “600 and 700 police officers are deployed every day”, particularly in the districts of north-eastern Paris (10th, 18th, 19th and 20th arrondissements) in order to “disperse consumers and challenge crack sellers”. Another objective: to prevent the establishment of a new wild place of consumption. A strike force which is reflected in the figures, according to the public prosecutor, since the 255 arrests for “sale and consumption of crack” in the first half of this year flirt with the total number of 2023, or 285. Arrests which have also led to 21 expulsions of foreign nationals. “It destabilizes the market, it’s a good thing,” explained Laure Beccuau.
However, the prosecutor, like the prefect of police, however agreed that the lasting solution, “is to be able to take care of people from a health and social point of view”: “We do not oppose repression and care. Hence the involvement of the Regional Health Agency (ARS) and the Paris City Hall in the system of this local group for the treatment of gang crime (GLTD) “Crack”.
Fifty dedicated hospital beds
The municipality thus recalled this Thursday having supported the opening in June of a reception area for “crackers” on Boulevard Ney (18th arrondissement), managed by associations, as a “first point of passage” towards care with more than 2,500 entries in a month. The director general of ARS Ile-de-France, Amélie Verdier, underlined the “rise in power” of medico-social systems.
The ARS Île-de-France, which coordinates a large system of professionals and associations, notably launched last June, on an experimental basis, an “ASM” system to “better characterize the people” who are consumers, while there is no “standard course” for their support.
At the start of the school year in September, 50 hospital beds should also be dedicated to the care of “crackers”, against 39 currently open. Finally, under the authority of the current Minister of Health, weaning systems in the provinces have been put in place. Fifty-two consumers were admitted in six months.