The introduction of a smart card computerised system allowing heroin addicts to receive methadone treatment from any chemist, rather than one designated chemist, would aid the treatment of rural addicts, according to a doctor in the midlands.
In a submission to the National Drugs Strategy, Dr Patrick Troy, who worked to establish two methadone treatment centres in the Midlands Health Board region, said tying an addict's supervised consumption of methadone to their local chemist often prevented stabilised users from getting work.
"Some of my clients make a 50-mile round trip for a prescription to get three days' supervised consumption in the pharmacy near their home. Some stabilise so well they can go back to work, but what if they live in one town and get a job in another?
"I would like to see some vision in the system to give clients more mobility, because as it currently stands treatment can hamper further progress," Dr Troy said.
Seventeen heroin addicts attend the recently set-up treatment centre in St Vincent's Hospital in Athlone; 12 addicts are on a waiting list for the centre.
In Portlaoise the heroin problem is described as "more discrete" and 10 people get treatment at the centre there, including a boy aged 16. There is no waiting list.
Many of the heroin addicts in the midlands are local people who became addicted to heroin while living in Britain or Dublin and some move home for treatment.
Other addicts, most notably from Athlone, come from marginalised and deprived communities there.
Dr Patrick Doorley, the director of public health for the Midlands Health Board, said there was no major heroin problem in the area but health workers were determined not to become complacent.
"I worked in Dublin's north inner city in the 1980s and we were receiving informal information from youth workers on the ground on how the drugs problem was increasing well before it hit the headlines. You always have to be on the lookout for signs the problem is evolving," he said.
In the midlands region a health promotion manager oversees the drugs issue, with four health education officers also taking part in a schools education programme. Community drug councillors operate clinics which, according to Dr Dooley, run a "confidential and non-judgmental service".