“We must put in place a crack plan that is massive and effective”, said Saturday September 24 on franceinfo Bertrand Kern, socialist mayor of Pantin. It’s been a year since crack users were grouped together in a camp northeast of Paris near Porte de la Villette. Several hundred drug addicts live there in tents and makeshift shelters. A demonstration will take place this Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Pantin town hall to denounce this situation.
franceinfo: Is the situation critical?
Bertrand Kern: Yes, the inhabitants of our district of Quatre-Chemins can’t take it anymore. Shops have seen their turnover drop by 20 to 25%, associations like Emmaüs have seen their windows broken, with thefts. Residents see the doors of buildings smashed in with crack users who urinate and defecate in the entrances, who sleep on the landings.
What is the situation for drug addicts?
You have to go see Porte de la Villette. It is unworthy of the Republic. We are facing a camp that looks more like a slum, the health and social conditions are deplorable. Crack users are completely abandoned. Since the prefect of police of Paris Laurent Nunez was appointed, there have been police operations against dealers, but consumers are in a deplorable state.
Is the police response the right answer?
No, it is necessary but it is not sufficient. There are two parts. You have the police and repressive response to drug traffickers who sell a pebble between 10 and 20 euros. The consumer has only one goal in his day is to get this famous stone.
And you have the other side, that of the health and social care of its people because we are faced with people who are sick, with a highly addictive drug. According to the associations, you have 60 to 80 people who come under psychiatry, a good third ask for therapeutic courses to try to get out of the habit and enter into a health protocol that would allow them to escape this drug.
“There is the question of setting up controlled consumption rooms in order to recreate a link between the crack user and the health and social authorities.”
Bertrand Kern, socialist mayor of Pantinat franceinfo
Would you be ready to welcome them in your town?
If I’m not the only one. We are already in the north and east of Paris with cities that are already very fragile. If we add fragility to fragility, at some point we have to say stop. I am ready to take my part, but not if I am alone. A year ago, there was no crack trafficking in Pantin.
What do you expect from the state?
I expect there to be an update of the crack plan which was negotiated between the city of Paris, the health authorities and the police and regional prefecture of Paris. We must put in place a crack plan that is massive and effective.