Shooting rooms: twelve mayors, including Grégory Doucet, call on the government

Will the city of Lyon acquire shooting rooms? In any case, this is the wish of environmentalist mayor Grégory Doucet who, with eleven other mayors of large cities, sent an open letter to the Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu. These elected officials are asking “that addiction treatment centers” (HSA) be authorized in their cities. “We need full commitment from the State to pursue a coordinated policy to combat crack and narcotics,” write the mayors of Lyon, Paris, Marseille, Nantes, Montpellier, Strasbourg, Lille, Rennes, Villeurbanne, Grenoble, Tours and Nancy.

“Our cities are on the front line facing the realities that this system makes it possible to deal with: the consumption of substances in public spaces, groupings, abandoned syringes, neighborhood tensions and people very far from the health system,” added these councilors from the left.

A shooting room in Gerland?

In Lyon, the question of opening a shooting room was raised at the beginning of September by Grégory Doucet, concerned about the security situation in the Gerland district, where there are more and more crack users. “We have had an intensification of drug trafficking to unprecedented proportions in Lyon. Traffickers distribute doses for free to generate addiction,” declared the elected environmentalist, regretting not being able to open “addiction treatment centers” as the law did not allow him to do so.

In fact, the law of January 26, 2016 allowed this type of room to be tested and the cities of Paris and Strasbourg were candidates. Since then, only municipalities with a shooting room can accommodate a new one as part of this experiment extended until December 31, 2027 by a decree published last May by the Minister of Health. In January 2026, a report from the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas) confirmed that addiction treatment centers reduced health risks and improved public peace, recommending that the system be made sustainable.