Covered with a down jacket showing a turquoise hoodie, pulled up to the nose, a lookout is already at work, in the middle of the morning in front of the large black gate at the entrance of the Charles-Schmidt city, in Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis).
"To buy, it's the second door, at the back on the left," he whispers after asking the potential customer to "get out of the angle of the cameras".
Inside, snuggled up on a chair at the entrance to the hall, the dealer refuses to raise the question of the legalization of cannabis, relaunched by the deputy (LFI) Eric Coquerel: "You ask who you want, I don't do not speak."
In this residence, one of the main points of deal in the town, many residents have decided to take the fight against drug trafficking, which undermines their lives every day, head-on.
In recent months, a tenants' association has been formed, multiplying initiatives on the subject.
The fear of favoring other trafficking
First, the organization of aperitifs last summer to "occupy the field" in front of the traffickers, while the "oven" (point of sale) is set up in the neighborhood every day, until minus midnight.
At the end of September, these inhabitants also decided to publish and post an "open letter" ... to the customers of the dealers.
"Do not come to us anymore, you are not welcome", they wrote in particular.
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What do they think today of the proposal of their deputy Eric Coquerel, who wishes to propose a law aimed in particular at legalizing cannabis to eradicate trafficking?
Kader
(the first name has been changed), a
member of the tenants' association, is not convinced that the measure is the miracle cure.
"We do not eliminate the poverty and precariousness of these young people with a law," he believes, convinced that the disappearance of this traffic would create new ones.
“We will push little hands to traffic other illicit substances, cocaine, heroin, crack, weapons… he continues.
Will we be asking to legalize the sale of these products as well? "
He also believes that young traffickers “will not be the ones who can then find work in the legal trade.
We will choose young people from elsewhere, trained in good schools… ”
"Legalize is the only solution"
One of his neighbors, Jules, does not share his opinion.
“Legalize is the only solution.
The state has proven for more than thirty years that it does not have the means to solve the problem, estimates the 36-year-old man.
And us, it degrades our neighborhoods, with nuisances but also a dark youth.
It is much easier for these young people to go on the lookout for 100 euros than to look for work. "
He has lived in this neighborhood for six years and does not believe that the solution lies in a greater deployment of police forces.
"Anyway, if we solved the problem here, it would move elsewhere," he predicts.
"So many people smoke today ..."
Across the street, “Dédé”, 60, waits patiently for his laundry to dry in the laundromat.
An old cannabis user, the 60-year-old is also in favor of legalization.
"Will that make a difference?
I don't know, but there are so many people who smoke today.
And it's not like it used to be, when you had to hide for that, he testifies.
Now people are rolling their joint in the middle of the sidewalk… ”
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Across from the city, Eric has opened a wine cellar which has also served as a delicatessen for a little over a year.
“In the neighborhood, people see the traffic and talk about it regularly,” he says.
We wonder what it is possible to do.
We can set up a police station just in front of it but the traffic will be done elsewhere… The police will come by six, seven, eight times a day but that doesn't change anything because everything is very well organized and the city is a real Gruyere. "
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With its clients, the issue of legalization also comes up regularly.
"Some people think that if we legalize soft drugs, the traffickers will switch to harder drugs, which will hurt much more ..." Personally, he thinks that legalization would be "a good thing", but on condition of accompanying young traffickers.
"What will we do with them?"
Some are kids, sometimes 12 or 13 years old… they shouldn't end up in the street to do something else, and not necessarily better. ”