France’s first safe injecting site for people who inject drugs has opened in Paris.
Linked to the city’s Lariboisière Hospital, the facility can accommodate up to 400 people a day and is staffed by a full team of doctors, nurses and social workers. It is made up of three areas: a waiting room, a consumption room and a place where people can rest before leaving the site.
The aim of the facility, which is open to adults aged 18 and over, is to lessen the risks associated with injecting drug use, including HIV infection. Research shows that supervised injection sites also reduce crime and other social disorders linked to the public consumption of drugs.
The UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé, congratulated France’s Minister of Health, Marisol Touraine, and the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, on the opening of the site.
Additional drug consumption rooms are planned to open in other French cities, including Strasbourg and Bordeaux, in the near future.
Paris is a founder signatory of the Paris Declaration, which commits cities to ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 by adopting a Fast-Track approach to their HIV epidemics.
