GENEVA’s junkies shun dingy back alleys for Quai9, a squeaky-clean, apple-green building near the railway station. Since 2001 it, like more than 80 others around the world, has offered a safe, hygienic place for injecting drugs. In the Netherlands users can pick from among 37 lawful “shooting galleries”; Germany has 26. North America and Australia have one apiece (in Vancouver and Sydney). France this month agreed to the country’s first, a trial project in Paris’s seedy Gare du Nord district.
因为Quai9的出现，日内瓦的瘾君子们走出了昏暗肮脏的后街小巷。Quai9是火车站附近一栋苹果绿色的建筑，里面非常干净。自2001年以来，全球各地已经建立起80多个同类建筑，专门为瘾君子提供安全、卫生的毒品注射场所。荷兰为吸毒者提供了37个合法的“毒品注射处”，德国有26个，北美和澳大利亚各有一个（分别在温哥华和悉尼）。本月法国也同意建立第一个项目试点，地点选在了肮脏破旧的巴黎北火车站地区。
Jean-Fran??ois Corty, one of its backers, says supervision can prevent overdoses. If clients “inject responsibly”, using clean needles and alcohol swabs, they avoid infection too. Around 60% of French addicts who inject their drugs have hepatitis C, he says. Many reuse syringes left in stairwells: “This is a medical question, not an ideological one”.
该项目的支持者之一珍·佛朗索瓦·科蒂说，统一管理可以防止吸毒过量。如果吸毒者能“合理注射”，使用干净的针头和酒精棉签，还可以避免感染。他说，法国约60%使用注射方式的吸毒者都患有C型肝炎，很多人在楼梯间捡起别人用过的针头重复注射：“这是个卫生问题，不是思想道德问题”。
Valérie Pécresse, a French opposition politician, has denounced the scheme as “assisted poisoning”. But Dr Corty says trials do not suggest that the supervised injection sites boost drug use. They just discourage rather than punish. Norway’s centre in Oslo limits intake to one dose of heroin per visit. Quai9 allows a stay of only 30 minutes per shot. Last year Luxembourg’s centre set up three inhalation booths to encourage less-harmful methods. Many refer addicts to health services, social workers and detox programmes. The centres are no panacea. But they help to keep needles clean—and streets clean of needles.
法国反对派政治家瓦莱丽·佩克莱斯谴责这一计划，称这是在“协助吸毒”。但是科蒂博士认为，处于监管下的注射点并未引发毒品滥用，相对于直接惩罚，这更像是间接劝阻。挪威首都奥斯陆的注射中心对每个吸毒者每次注射的海洛因数量做出限制；Quai9规定每次注射在注射点的停留时间不得超过30分钟；去年卢森堡的注射中心建立了3个毒品吸食站，鼓励瘾君子使用危害更小的方式吸毒。许多站点还将吸毒者引导至健康服务站、戒毒所、或让他们做社工。虽然这些中心不是解决吸毒问题的灵丹妙药，但至少他们能提供干净的针头，也能让街头巷尾少一些针头。