Methadone provision has been piece-meal in NI

The Department of Health is to announce that methadone should be more easily available to addicts, no matter where they live.

Methadone has been prescribed to some addicts in the province for about four years.

But its availability has depended on whether doctors in a particular area were willing to prescribe it.

This so-called "post code lottery" is expected to be scrapped by the health department.

This was a case of head in the sand, because down the road in Dublin there was such a bad problem Don MacFarlane Consultant psychiatrist

New guidelines will mean that no matter where a heroin addict lives, they should be able to get a methadone prescription - providing a doctor thinks it is clinically necessary.

Methadone is already widely available elsewhere in the UK, but its use remains controversial.

Advocates say because it is prescribed, the authorities are able to control and monitor its use.

But critics say it is an opiate and that its prescription turns doctors into drug dealers.

They also argue that only total abstinence is the best way to end a heroin addiction.

One methadone user, Gerard, said: "It is an opiate as well, so it has the same sort of effects.

"You are not stoned, but you have an opiate in your body so you are not constantly craving it."

Consultant psychiatrist Don MacFarlane said it was not that long ago that the official view from the Department of Health was that substitute opiates should not be prescribed.

He said there was a mistaken belief that Northern Ireland did not have much of a heroin problem.

"This was a case of head in the sand, because down the road in Dublin there was such a bad problem," he said.

"People came to the conclusion that it must be something to do with the fact that there was no honey-pot - there was no methadone available that would attract people."