France says no to drug addict 'shooting rooms'

Prime Minister François Fillon has refused to consider the idea of opening drug consumption rooms in France against the advice of his Health Minister, Roselyne Bachelot. Supporters of the idea say they will continue to lobby.

Commonly referred to in France as salles de shoot or "shooting rooms", these consumption rooms for hard drug users have not won the support of the government after a campaign by Bachelot to open them in major French cities where drug abuse is most prevalent, says le Figaro. Drug consumption rooms exist in eight countries: Holland, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Luxembourg, Norway, Australia and Canada. They are officially recognized and publicly-funded facilities designed to permit the hygienic consumption of pre-obtained drugs. Their aim is to reach out to high-risk drug users, particularly those who inject or consume in public, by providing a safe environment and trained staff. They are not the same as drug prescription programs which supply drugs to users in a controlled environment. Roselyne Bachelot first floated the idea of “supervised consumption centers” in July, saying they would address “crucial sanitation issues.” Her announcement followed a report by the INSERM, the national health and medical research institute, which claimed that consumption rooms are already installed in more than 45 cities in 8 countries, adding they had proved their worth in terms of reducing drug-related crime, overdoses, infection and death. Fillon’s declaration has dealt a severe blow to her goals. His office issued a statement yesterday saying that he would not tolerate “shooting rooms”, claiming that they were “neither useful or desirable. The Prime Minister’s priority is to reduce drug consumption, not to accompany or organize it.” Fillon immediately came under fire from his own supporters, including State Secretary for Families Nadine Morano, who argued that the debate needed to be opened up in order that all options designed to fight drug addiction be considered. She declared during an interview with radio station RTL that “When drug addicts are able to take their drugs under supervision and if we manage to get them off drugs, I think we will have won a battle.” Another supporter, Mayor of Marseille Jean-Claude Gaudin, said that he and Roselyne Bachelot “are on the same wavelength.” He had even announced that he would unilaterally install consumption rooms in Marseille, but retracted when he learned of Fillon’s position. Other majority members denounced Bachelot’s idea however. UMP General Secretary Xavier Bertrand said that drug dependence should be “broken” and that the objective was not to accompany addition, saying that to do that would send “a very bad signal.” As early as Monday, 14 members of a group calling itself “The Popular Right” slammed Bachelot’s propositions, declaring that she had “lost her grip.” Bachelot stuck to her guns on Wednesday, reaffirming her interest for the idea and quoting the positive results obtained up to now with other measures which were contested before their introduction, such as putting syringes on open sale and legalizing the controlled sale of substitute drugs. The INSERM report compiled a list of the benefits and negative effects of the introduction of consumption rooms in other countries. Benefits were said to include the reduction in delinquency in areas around the rooms, no increase in drug use, improved injection conditions leading to less infection and increased access to users from defavorized areas due to their use of rooms. Doubts were expressed concerning a slight rise in small scale dealing in areas concerned, no proven reduction in HIV declarations and local opposition to the idea in areas concerned.