the hassle of getting treatment and finding help

How to live with an addiction to hard drugs? How to get help? How to tell? Testimonials from those who have come across drugs one day and who are struggling to get out of it with the help of professionals and associations.

Pablo tells us sitting on a sidewalk in Lille that he fell in love, “because of a woman“. She showed him the path of the evil that gnaws at him, “cocaine and heroin for the descent is 130 euros per day in total“, explains Pablo while he himself seems to have trouble believing it. Today, he is squatting with a friend, a companion of fortune: “I’m intruding on his privacy, but he’s a nice guy.”

The apartment has only one bed, Pablo sleeps half on the floor. Born in Roubaix, Pablo was already on his own at 13, kicked out by his father.

In my life, I never thought I would find myself in this situation… Even my children don’t know and I will never be able to tell them”

pablo

France 3 Hauts-de-France

Support without judging was the ambition of the consumption room which should have opened in Lille in October 2021. But the government has not given its approval to take a step towards drug users with this injection site. backed by the addiction center of Lille University Hospital.

According to the government, the establishment of a shooting room, boulevard de Metz, could harm the proper deployment of the “Witness district” operation carried out by the Ministry of the Interior in Lille.

However, two lower-risk consumption rooms (often called “shooting rooms” in particular by their detractors) already exist in France, in Strasbourg and Paris, with positive results which have been noted in an Inserm report: 69 % fewer overdoses and three times fewer syringes collected in public places.

The absence of a room is badly experienced by people plagued by drug addiction. However, users can count on moral and administrative support from associations and health professionals and also from the distribution of equipment, such as syringes or crack pipes.

“We have to hide on the stairs or in the subway”

Pablo, drug user, in Lille

To the question if a room dedicated to drug users would be a good thing, Pablo Consumer answers: “Intimacy, already. At least the tourniquet. We were talking about those who shoot themselves. At least the tourniquet, it’s well done. If it’s badly done, well, the heart, afterwards, it lets go. And that , I have seen it with my own eyes, and many times.”

A caregiver at the Addictology Support and Prevention Center (CSAPA) in Lille describes the situation: “We do not distribute the product in any way, people cannot consume within the confines of the structure. We start from the principle that in fact, the person, if he wishes to consume, he will consume. So, as much as she does it by taking care of her health and that of others. It is also a matter of public health. Rather than using used equipment and endangering one or more people.”

For Doctor Arnaud Muyssen, addictologist at CHRU Lille, the CSAPA has proven its usefulness, in the prevention of risks but also to restore the link. “It won’t solve everything, but it’s a tool and an important tool for the most disadvantaged. It allows them to reconnect with a care team. To be able to be there if there is an overdose, to prevent them from die in the street. Because, in other words, that’s where we are.”

To be a drug addict, intravenous, street, it is never a life project. People got there through a cascade of traumatic events. Sexual abuse is very frequent, intra-family abuse too, which means that we find ourselves with young people who find themselves outside

Dr Arnaud Muyssen, addictologist in Lille

Do not leave aside, even if it means moving around Lens. This is what we choose to do on a daily basis, these professionals in addictology.

Is it curable? “Technically, no. Since we always remain in a chronic disease, therefore which will always be present, which can be balanced, which can be, for those substituted, perfectly substituted, in which case we lead a normal existence with a normal life expectancy. , but always with a risk of relapse which is present.

“I want people to understand that alcohol is like heroin or cocaine, it’s a very hard drug to get out of. And as I’m telling you, it’s been 30 years since I consume, more or less. It’s very difficult, very difficult.”

Michael, in Lens

An employee of the Le Pari association, Maryvonne herself experienced addiction. “It’s like a role model. They say to themselves: okay, you did well, you look good today. You were like us, so I too can get better. I manage to manage consumption and I think it can help people who have done ten cures, twenty cures, who say: “it’s good, I’ve done twenty, I can’t do it, I’m screwed”. Well no, there is still something else, there are still possibilities. Giving hope, in fact.”

CSAPA (Addictology Support and Prevention Center)
https://www.chu-lille.fr/services/centre-de-soins-daccompaniment-et-de-prevention-en-addictologie-csapa

Association The bet (Lille)
https://www.lepari.fr/
https://www.facebook.com/Lepari.fr/

Addictology center of the EPSM of the Lille conurbation
https://www.epsm-al.fr/article/pole-daddictologie

>>>> Testimonials to be found in length and immersion in the magazine Enquêtes de region to see in replay on france.tv.

The Hauts-de-France, by the size of the population but also by its geographical position in the heart of Europe, are not immune to drug-related issues. As everywhere, drugs regularly make the headlines in our region. Behind political debates, news items or court decisions, there are very deep issues that impact our society as a whole.