The Mayor of the City of Brussels Philippe Close wants to open a crisis centre to receive drug addicts, he said on Friday in an interview with Het Laatste Nieuws.
The situation has been tense at Brussels-Midi for several weeks, due in particular to the circulation of drugs and the presence of addicts in and around the station.
Philippe Close has stressed on several occasions that, as mayor of Brussels City, he is not responsible for Brussels-Midi station. However, he believes that cooperation between all levels of power is necessary to move things forward.
More police not the answer
According to the mayor, increasing the police presence on the streets is not a sufficient measure to tackle the rise of drug use on the streets of Brussels. "The police can intervene for reasons of public order. They arrest people under the influence and put them in a cell for six hours. Then they are released. Sometimes they are taken to court, but that’s rare," explains the mayor.
Close therefore wants to approach the problem in a different way, by redirecting drug addicts to a new crisis centre, set up in collaboration with the Brugmann University Hospital, where they could undergo detoxification and consult psychiatrists.
The Brussels Region also plans to install a second low-risk drug consumption room by 2027. Philippe Close, for his part, would like to speed things up. "If it takes that long, I will finance the opening of such a facility myself by next year. The urgency is too great."
