Lausanne: the Riponne injection facility opens Monday

After months of debate and controversy, both within the Lausanne population and its town CouncilL’secure consumption area (ECS) of drugs opens Monday in Riponne. Presented as a branch of the injection premises already operational in Vallon, it targets another audience: the most socially disengaged drug addicts and who are in an emergency to use. “The goal is to improve the health of these people and the quality of life in downtown Lausanne, particularly for the neighborhood,” explains Emilie Moeschler, the municipal representative for Social Cohesion.

While the ECS du Vallon offers fourteen places for consumption, between injection, inhalation and sniffing, to around a hundred users per day, the ECS de la Riponne will offer 17 places, including two individual ones, particularly for the feminine gender. “Our daily capacity will be greater than in Vallon. Let’s say that we will be able to accommodate up to 250 people per day,” says Stéphane Moelo. He is the manager of the Riponne premises.

Take a ticket like at the post office

The ECS de la Riponne is located in the passage under the building at number 10, to the north of the square. It is made up of four spaces over 140 square meters. Reception is at a counter. As at the post office, a touch terminal issues tickets according to needs: injection, inhalation, sniffing, syringe withdrawal… “People who come here must first pass a reception interview, but with a minimum of administrative procedures », assures Matthieu Rouèche, director of the ABS Foundation, which manages the ECS in Lausanne.

The anonymity of users will be guaranteed. Few personal details will be asked: just a nickname, age, gender and origin. People in an irregular situation will also be admitted. A rest or waiting room adjoins the reception. The color of the armchairs matches the ambient atmosphere: it’s blue. Each seat has a footrest, which can, depending on needs, also serve as a small table. Users will then go into the adjoining room to take drugs. They will be supervised by a team of five people working in the socio-health sector, nurses and social workers.

The fourth space available will be located outside. Matthieu Rouèche: “We are going to create a terrace in the middle of the road, which will be permanently closed to traffic. Our beneficiaries will be able to wait their turn there, drink a coffee or smoke a cigarette.” This terrace, clearly demarcated on the ground, should encourage drug addicts not to scatter around. It will be dismantled every evening, to prevent people from spending the night there.

Open premises, closed toilets

The Riponne ECS will be open on Monday and Tuesday from 3:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., and from Wednesday to Saturday from 3:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. It cost around 500,000 francs in work. The annual cost of the two ECS amounts to 1.66 million francs, financed by the municipal operating budget as well as some 30% by the Canton.

There local police will soon hold a press conference about the system it intends to put in place around the Riponne premises. “We will not be present in the premises or on the terrace, but we no longer want to see people injecting themselves anywhere,” already warns Commander Botteron. The public toilets in Riponne, which today serve as an unsanitary injection site, will be closed during the premises’ opening hours. However, they will reopen during its closing hours.

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Laurent Antonoff has been a journalist in the Vaud section since 1990. After covering the regions of Northern Vaud and the Riviera, he joined the Lausanne editorial team at the turn of the millennium. A novelist in his spare time, he won the Berner Zeitung Local Journalism Prize in 1998.More informations

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