Calm has returned around Forceval Square, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, Sunday, November 6. The hundreds of crack users who lived there, piled on top of each other, have definitely left the place. A month after the dismantling of the camp by the police, the residents and traders we meet say they are relieved. “We were scared, there was no security, so they attacked people. They were violent, says a local resident. And then it was dirty”. “Completely lost people who were ready for anything”, adds a resident.
Forty people were arrested after the evacuation of this consumer camp installed for almost a year. At the beginning of November, the police are still very present in this sector near the Porte de la Villette in order to prevent the square from being transformed into a squat again.
However, the problem of crack is still far from being solved, notes Séverine Guy, deputy mayor of the 19th arrondissement, in charge of health: “In reality, the consumers were dispersed. It’s true in the 19ᵉ, but it’s also true in the 18ᵉ arrondissement. This distribution is still anxiety-provoking for the inhabitants because it’s outdoor deal scenes .It solved the emergency situation of this camp which was really atrocious, but it did not solve the problem of the consumers”.
Dispersed consumers, in small groups, but who, for lack of a camp, turn more easily to reception structures. This is the positive point, underlined by José Matos, of the Gaïa risk reduction association. Its structure receives 30% more consumers in recent weeks. And then the end of Forceval is also the end of a lawless zone where crack consumption was totally unbridled: “What happened at Forceval Square was that it was permanently available, which was much more complicated for people to manage. As long as there is product, they will consume it and we saw people sink into addiction.”
“This place is no longer there and it’s rather positive. Now, nothing has been put in place at the medico-social level, at the accommodation level, at the level of rest areas. Because people consume at night, and during the day they have no place to go to rest.”
José Matos (Gaïa association)at franceinfo
Since the dismantling of the camp, a few dozen hotel places have been freed up by the public authorities to accommodate consumers. The associations are asking for a lot more in order to avoid the reconstruction of a new camp in the months to come.
These places of accommodation are crucial in the course of care for crack users. Having a roof means finding a form of stability and it is also one of the steps towards weaning. The care of these patients must be global, defend addictologists. In the vast majority of cases, a crack user accumulates pathologies and lives in great precariousness, explains Professor Amine Benyamina, head of the psychiatry and addictology department at Paul-Brousse hospital in Villejuif (Val-de-Marne) : “The profile of a crack user is first and foremost social disintegration. The use of crack will organize a life of marginality which will cause physical and psychological damage. We very often have what are called psychiatric comorbidities.”
“We can have people who are very often anxious, depressed, but sometimes we have even more serious pathologies, in the sense that they require very specialized care, such as psychotic pathologies.”
Professor Amine Benyaminaat franceinfo
The psychiatrist also mentions “infectious problems, skin problems, teeth problems, hair problems, metabolism problems”. These pathologies are not always solely due to the consumption of crack, specifies Professor Benyamina: “Most of the time we are dealing with polyconsumers. Often, they are consumers of alcohol, opiates, drugs to be able to relieve the lack.
For treat these polyconsumers, believes this practitioner, it is necessary “des sas”: “It’s the whole risk reduction policy that is available on the social, the psychological and the addictive. The social is a roof, hygiene. The psychological, of course, is managing the psychiatric problem. And the addictive is helping them to consume differently, without taking risks for themselves and for the environment.” Once this frame reassuringly set up, continues Professor Amine Benyamina, “we work on motivation. One of the best tracks is the work of motivation and the work of psychological help to be able to pick up.
Such psychosocial care for crack users seems to have consensus within the medical community. Especially since there is currently no substitution treatment for this drug.