The facility was opened to help take the pressure off the drug consumption room in Luxembourg City, Abrigado. So far, the first three months of Contact Esch have been positive. Around 40 individuals a day make use of the facility and those neighbours asked about the facility have not complained. Overall, neighbouring residents have praised that the area has remained quiet, nor has any drugs paraphernalia been left on the streets.
"Only the drugs help me forget": inside Luxembourg's drug consumption roomUpon inquiry, Esch-sur-Alzette mayor Georges Mischo confirmed that neither residents or the police have complained about the drug consumption room to him. The first three months of Contact Esch have proven to be harmonious, much like its sister facility in the capital. However, Contact Esch has not yet managed to relieve the pressure felt by Abrigado, says manager Martina Kap.
Kap explained that it is certainly likely that drug users from the south who may have gone to Abrigado previously now go to Contact Esch to take drugs under supervision, but these users are not the most problematic ones. The users who have moved to Contact Esch tend to be ones with stable lives, who don't need to be in Abrigado for 12 or 24 hours, and have the option to return home.
In that sense, she stressed, the Esch-sur-Alzette facility has not yet provided relief to Abrigado, as the latter's figures remain high. Whether or not this will change in the long term, Kap does not know, but she believes that the second facility is not enough to affront the issue.
Kap hopes that other municipalities will see the success of Contact Esch and follow in its footsteps to provide structural help to drugs users.
