"It's no use, I'm going to have to go back on heroin," said Noel Lynch, a 24-year-old heroin/ physeptone addict, as he emerged from the Eastern Health Board's Castle Street clinic in Dublin yesterday morning.
He had just been told by one of the clinic's doctors that he would not be taken on to the drug treatment programme there until his physeptone prescription ran out next Monday.
Yesterday was the first day of the full implementation of the Misuse of Drugs (Supervision of Prescription and Supply of Methadone) Regulations, 1998, which will stringently regulate the dispensing of heroin substitutes.
Only methadone will be prescribed, and only by designated GPs and clinics.
Noel, who comes from the Rialto area of Dublin's south inner city, was told by his GP last Monday that he would not be prescribing physeptone for him after October 1st and that he would have to attend an EHB clinic for methadone. Noel predicted that it might take a week before the EHB processed his application for treatment.
According to the new protocol, only doctors who have been specially trained will be permitted to prescribe methadone; GPs will be permitted to take on a maximum of 35 addicts; prescriptions for methadone will be written on official methadone forms; and all addicts in treatment will be registered on a compulsory treatment list and issued with a photo ID treatment card.
The regulations were introduced in July in an effort to end the widespread dealing of physeptone on the streets.
Private doctors prescribing physeptone did not have to report their patients' names to the health board. This meant some addicts could simultaneously receive physeptone or methadone from the health board and sell it on the streets.
Mr Tony Geoghan, of the Merchant's Quay Project, welcomed the new regulations. He said anything that undermined the leakage of physeptone or methadone on to the streets was a good thing. But he was concerned that the EHB might be unable to cope with the numbers now coming forward for treatment.
"The health board has made a commitment to take on anyone who comes forward, but it is difficult to see how they can be sure they'll be able to. I know of one GP in particular who had 200 addicts on his books, and now they are turned over to the clinics."
A spokesperson for the EHB told The Irish Times that an additional 700 treatment places had been provided and 92 GPs recruited.
Mr Geoghan was also concerned that addicts might be reluctant to move back under the supervision of the statutory agencies after they had had some autonomy attending private doctors.
