Paris - French health minister Marisol Touraine on Tuesday inaugurated the country's first safe injection facility as part of a plan to modernise the health system and “respond to a health emergency.”
“The opening of the first safe injection site in France is a major breakthrough for public health in our country, an innovative and courageous response to a health emergency,” the minister said in a statement.
“The safe consumption room is an effective means of prevention to avoid infections, fatal overdoses, abscesses, or venous complications,” she added.
According to the communique, 10 percent of drug users in France are infected with HIV and 40 percent with hepatitis C. Managed by a multidisciplinary team of professionals, the safe injection room aims to welcome, assist, and advise drug users who are allowed to consume drugs under the supervision of doctors.
In April 2015, French lawmakers approved a draft law on health that permitted a supervised injection facility despite a fierce opposition of right-wing parties. Under the law, drug users who go to the facility to shoot up cannot be prosecuted for “unlawful use and unlawful possession of drugs as long as the amount of owned drug is limited to personal use only.”
The safe injection room in the French capital will officially open its doors on Oct. 14. A second facility is expected to open in Strasbourg, east France, in the coming weeks.
Xinhua