By: Jennifer Halliday
Produced and edited by: Leisha Lininger
In the 1970s, the Netherlands
opened their first safe injection facilities, which provided a safe and humane
environment for those marginalized in society by addiction to inject their
drugs in a supportive, non-judgmental way. Safe injection rooms, or legalized
“shooting galleries” are facilities where addicts can inject heroin and other
drugs with sterile needles provided by medical professionals. Since the 1970s,
these facilities have spread throughout several European countries such as
Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, and Spain and have even moved across seas to
Canada and Australia.
With growing concern for both
drug-related injuries and transmission of blood-borne diseases in the country
of France, Marisol Touraine, France’s health minister, has announced a trial
run of safe injection facilities.
“I
hope that experimental trials will be announced before the end of the year,”
Touraine told French BFM television.
France
has become a natural distribution point for drugs moving toward North America
from Europe and the Middle East. The country’s overseas territories in the
Caribbean, its proximity to North Africa, and its participation in the Schengenopen border system, contribute to its desirability as a transit point for
drugs. In fact, the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law EnforcementAffairs reports that drugs from Morocco, South America, Afghanistan, Turkey, Belgium,
the Netherlands and Germany all find their way into France.
“One of
the most dangerous drugs, one of the most prevalent drugs, one of the most
addicting drugs, that we’re dealing with is heroin,” said Dr. Michel Craplet of
the Association Nationale de Prevention en Alcoologie et Addictologie.
Heroin
is an opiate analgesic synthesized from the opium poppy plant. According to a
study by Carpentier and Costes, an estimated 160,000 heroin addicts live in
France alone.
The
country currently offers three forms of drug addiction treatment financed by
the French social security system: outpatient care, inpatient care, and
treatment for prison inmates.
“If you
combined all three types of this treatment, there’s still only about 270 of
these centers throughout the entire country,” said Craplet.
And
according to Carpentier and Costes’ study, heroin-related deaths in the country
have jumped thirty percent since 2000. As a result, many public health
organizations are calling for a rapid start to the safe injection room program.
“Other countries’ safe injection
rooms have shown a benefit to the public health situation,” said Christian Andreo, manager of the French AIDES National Program. “They have proven to
cause a reduction of HIV and AIDS contamination as well as provide more access
to care.”
Supervised
injection sites are credited with lowering overdoses, reducing the spread of
blood-borne diseases, improving client heath and public health, providing entry
to drug treatment and other medical and social services, and reducing public
disorder. They have also been linked to reductions in neighborhood crime.
However,
despite numerous studies that support the implementation of safe injection
rooms, Andreo has serious doubts that they will be up and running by the end of
the year.
“I have
doubts concerning the possibility to open such a program by the end of the
year,” said Andreo. “It’s a lot of work to do with the competition from local
authorities and police.”
Opposition
for the implementation of safe injection rooms is widespread throughout France.
In an opinion poll conducted in September by French polling agency Ifop, 55
percent of those questioned said they were against them, while 45 percent said
they were in favor.
However, the program’s largest opposition is France’s
conservative UMP party, which has said it was against the opening of such trial
centers.
“Opening
consumption rooms does not help fight against the scourge of drugs, but rather
trivializes drug use and legalizes the use of the hardest drugs at the
taxpayer’s expense,” said Camille Bedin, the party’s national secretary in a
statement to the press.
The idea
of safe injection rooms opening in France has made headlines in the country
since 2010. However, public health organizations are asking people to put the politics
aside.
“On the
topic of drug rooms, it’s really hard to focus on just what the science says,”
says the AIDES program’s Andreo. “We will always debate and we will have a
political party in favor of the opposing side, but we must focus on the health
involved.”
Despite
heavy political opposition, the French public has shown signs of supporting the
implementation of safe injection rooms. In April’s presidential campaign, the
PS candidate Francois Hollande was elected over the UMP’s incumbent Nicolas
Sarkozy. During his campaign, Hollande said the he would oversee the opening of
France’s first “shooting galleries.” Medecins du Monde, along with other
organizations, has since called on Hollande to see his word into action.
“We
advocate for the opening of safe injection rooms, but you can’t open these
programs without a legal basis, we need that legal basis,” said Medecins du
Monde’s Emmanuelle Hau.
President
Hollande has received support for his move to open safe injection rooms from
fellow party member Jean-Marie Le Guen, of the Assemblee Nationale.
“I would
prefer that these destitute drug abusers inject themselves in specialized
rooms, rather than in the street or apartment building stairwells, as is the
case today,” says Le Guen. “I would prefer that they are surrounded by medical
professionals.”
“We aim for the end of the criminalization of drug use,” said the AIDES program’s
