CLINICS 'FORCING' ADDICTS TO GO PUBLIC

Alan is dreading the summer. On winter nights he has the cover of darkness
when he goes to his local treatment centre. Even then he keeps his hood up.
His friends and neighbours in his well-heeled suburb have no idea that their
white collar neighbour is a heroin addict. But on October 1st, 1998, he lost
the grip on his secret.

To get his methadone, previously dispensed by a GP, he attended his local
treatment clinic. In the queue other addicts looked at him wide eyed, saying
they never knew he was a user. In his first three months at the clinic
Alan's methadone dose has doubled. He has started smoking heroin again, and
taking a cocktail of tranquilisers and other prescription drugs. Because his
urine samples are not testing clear, the centre has insisted he attend daily
and increased his methadone dose.

"They're very nice people, the people who run the clinic, but this idea of
herding people into a centre smacks of Eastern Europe before the fall," he
says.

"I'm trying to get off this stuff. I'm trying to keep it a secret and
they're forcing me into the open. The minute you admit you're an addict,
you're pigeon-holed. It's Star of David stuff." Another addict, Martin, was
on methadone for eight months with a private GP before October. His GP was
not registered with the health board so his methadone supply has gone. His
treatment centre might be able to give him a place soon but at the moment he
is using four to five bags of heroin a day, funding the IEP100-a-day habit
by doing a bit of work and "a bit of robbing."

A regular on the street drug scene, Martin has seen the supply of street
methadone dry up, and more people buying heroin as a result.

Peter, a professional with a third-level education in his late 40s, started
snorting and smoking heroin 10 years ago. Around five years ago he decided
to go on to methadone and found a private GP. "I'm really angry with the
idea that you either have to go to some clinic and put your name forward or
be cut off. I haven't gone around nicking handbags." He maintained his job
while on methadone. "I work hard. I make an honest living and I feel that
what I do with my money is my business." So frightened was he of being
identified as an addict in treatment he forced himself to go cold turkey. At
one stage he rang up his GP "begging and screaming" and got some codeine
tablets. "But I'm OK now and I'm still anonymous so it was worth it."

The names of individual addicts have been changed.