A Nottinghamshire clinic has become one of only a handful in Britain offering a treatment that claims to block the effects of heroin.

Doctors at the Meden Vale Medical Centre near Mansfield say it makes taking heroin pointless which helps addicts break the addiction.

The drug, called naltrexone, is being offered in a new form which aims to be more effective in treating heroin users.

But naltrexone is not available on the NHS and costs hundreds of pounds.

No high

The drug has been available for around 20 years but what is different about this is the way it is administered.

Instead of being taken in pill form, an implant is injected under the skin.

It slowly releases the drug for anything from a six week to a 12 month period.

Doctors say during that time, if an addict does takes heroin they will notice no effect.

Not licensed

Dr Trefor Roscoe, a business consultant at the Lifeback Clinic at the Medical Centre, said: "First of all patients have to want to come off it because before we put the implant in they have to go cold turkey and get the drug out of their system.

"That takes about a week and we provide support and counselling through that.".

The drug is not available on the NHS because there have not been enough studies on it for it to be licensed in Britain.