France Tries to Wall Off Crack Users — With an Actual Wall
Even after adopting a “Crack Roadmap” in 2019, France is still struggling with how to handle drug users in Paris’ public spaces.
A cinder block wall sealing off a tunnel that links the 19th arrondissement of the French capital to Pantin, in Seine Saint Denis, in Paris, France, on Friday, Oct. 8, 2021.
Photographer: Nathan Laine/BloombergFor years, authorities in Paris have struggled with an increasingly visible problem: users of crack cocaine gathering in large groups in parks and other public places. In late September, Mayor Anne Hidalgo asked France’s Interior Ministry for help clearing two streets where more than 100 crack users had congregated.
The ministry’s Paris police force employed a familiar strategy of moving the users to another location and took them by bus to the Porte de la Villette neighborhood in the northeast part of the city. But this time there was a twist. To stop people from entering the bordering low-income suburb of Pantin, a construction crew erected a cinder block wall, effectively sealing off a tunnel that links the 19th arrondissement of the French capital to Pantin, in Seine Saint Denis.