“We do not observe any deterioration in crime statistics” in the neighborhood


According to an Inserm survey, lower-risk consumption rooms, nicknamed shooting rooms, reduce health risks and improve public tranquility – VALINCO / SIPA

  • Two shooting rooms are currently being tested in France, one in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, the second in Strasbourg.
  • The Inserm study, which compares the situation of drug addicts frequenting these rooms and others who do not have access to them, concludes with a positive assessment both in terms of health and in terms of public tranquility.
  • The feelings of local residents are nevertheless much more shared.

Banners hanging from the windows, protest rallies and multiple legal remedies … It is an understatement to say that in 2016, the project to experiment in the Lariboisière district, in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, and in Strasbourg with meeting rooms. lower-risk consumption, more commonly known as “shooting rooms”, had raised serious concerns. However, five years after their opening, the results are largely positive, both in terms of health and that of public tranquility, reveals a
large Inserm study. Interview with sociologist Marie Jauffret-Roustide who coordinated the Parisian part of the study.

Who frequents the lower risk consumption room, often nicknamed the “shoot room”, in Paris?

More than 80% of men live, for many, in very great social precariousness. Only 17.5% of them work, although the majority claim to have a diploma higher or equal to the baccalaureate. They usually use morphine sulfate, an opiate that they buy on the street and inject themselves, and often smoke crack as well.

You note, in your study, a very clear benefit in terms of public health from consumption rooms …

Yes, the results are very positive. For a year, we followed 665 drug users in four cities in France: in Paris and Strasbourg on the one hand, where lower-risk consumption rooms are currently being tested, and in Bordeaux and Marseille where there are none. has not. In the latter two cities, 11% of users said they shared their injection equipment in the past month, compared to just 1% of those who use injection rooms. The risk of transmitting HIV or hepatitis C is therefore markedly reduced. Likewise, in the first group, 41% of people questioned declared having gone to the emergency room in the last six months against 17% for those who frequented consumption rooms.

So these places reduce the risk of overdose?

These visits to the emergency room are, in fact, mainly related to abscesses or complications related to injections. In France, overdoses are very rare: there are less than 500 per year for around 350,000 so-called “problematic” consumers *. This is explained by the proactive policy of access to substitution treatment in our country: 85% of drug users are under substitution treatment. Nevertheless, the injection rooms reduce this risk of overdose a little more: 1% of people attending the rooms in Paris and Strasbourg have overdosed in the last six months compared to 3% for those we followed in Marseille and Bordeaux

Beyond health issues, have you noticed any repercussions in terms of public peace? It was one of the major concerns of residents when creating the room …

Yes, this is also one of the lessons of the study. For example, 3% of drug addicts attending injection rooms declare having committed an offense during the last month, against 23% for those we followed in Marseille and Bordeaux. In Paris, we conducted an additional study on public tranquility. Between 2016 and 2018, the number of syringes found around the injection room was divided by three.

Likewise, when we look at crime statistics, we do not observe any deterioration. On the contrary, when the police are questioned, they believe that the neighborhood is rather less problematic than other areas of the 10th arrondissement even if, of course, their work in the fight against drug-related offenses continues. Moreover, when we look at real estate, we see that between 2011 and 2020, prices increased throughout the borough and a little more in the neighborhood around the venue.

However, your survey shows that residents are still very divided on the presence of this injection room …

That is true. For some, the creation of this structure has been a relief. They believe, for example, that there were more injections in the street before the room. Our interviews with the police confirm this: not only was the presence of these consumers important before the opening of the room but above all and, contrary to the concerns of some, it did not attract an additional crowd.

For other inhabitants, who imagined a total disappearance of the presence of consumers in the public space, it remains painful to live because there can be fights, there are always some users who continue to prick themselves in front of the room or in the adjacent streets. They are few in number, three or four, but with psychiatric problems that are difficult to deal with.

In Paris, one of the big problems when it comes to drug addiction is crack. However, today, only crack users who also take drugs by injection are allowed in the consumption room. How to explain this incongruity?

It is a decision of the public authorities. Much remains to be done in terms of crack use. It is necessary to improve the care of users by opening several inhalation rooms, in the 18th and 19th arrondissements in particular. Between 2018 and 2020, we conducted another study with the French Office for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT) among crack users and professionals in the sector. We have found that when users are taken care of, that they do not consume in the street, they tend to better regulate their consumption.

It is therefore necessary to open in secure spaces, in the interest of users but also residents. Conversely, police evacuations only shift the problem from one neighborhood to another. But keep in mind that these rooms are only a link, they only answer part of the problem. Social support and the provision of accommodation are essential to respond effectively to this problem.

* This notion includes regular users of opiates, cocaine, amphetamines and / or using the intravenous route in the past year.



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