an outpatient treatment programme for male and female drug abusers. At that time, the facility also served as an awareness centre for the community, with part of its budget allocated to educating it on drug abuse prevention. Today however, its focus has shifted, with the team concentrating solely on the problem at hand -- the addicts. It's a seemingly sensible move as the demands of the facility today require the full efforts of its staff. Its methadone programme, run to cope with up to 50 drug abusers, is already treating 55 patients and has a further ten on the waiting list and has had to turn away more because of the huge demand. Located on Victoria Street in Hamilton, Addiction Services also works with the families of substance abusers in addition to its primary work of treating its clients' addictions. There are currently about 78 active clients attending Addiction Services, 55 of whom are on the methadone programme. Another ten to 15 more attend counselling or other services on a monthly, or biannual basis. The methadone programme is used as a treatment for some of the facility's heroin addicts. Methadone was first developed during the Second World War in Germany as an alternative to heroin when it was feared the country's supply lines of opium poppy might be destroyed. German doctors used it as an analgesic. From the 1950's on, in the United States, it was used to treat patients for the pain associated with terminal illnesses like cancer. In 1964, two scientists in the United States -- psychiatrist Marie Nyswander and medical researcher, Vincent Dole, of Rockefeller University in New York, developed a way of using methadone as a tool for the treatment of heroin addicts. Initially, methadone had to overcome serious opposition from lawmakers, journalists and doctors in the United States who reviled its addictive properties. There were also side effects from its usage such as constipation, skin rashes, and insomnia. However, it was clear that the pre-1960's approach to heroin addiction in the United States -- admitting addicts to federally funded facilities where they were given gradually lower doses of heroin and then methadone, until they were drug free or detoxified -- was an abysmal failure. People so treated became locked into a perpetual state of heroin addiction followed by detoxification and then a relapse which never ended. In Bermuda, according to a 1995 survey conducted by the National Drug Commission (NDC): An estimated 2.5 percent of the adult population has tried heroin at least once.

The number of adult residents who admitted that they used heroin in a typical month, was 404, of whom 266 said they used it weekly or more often, in the period of 1994-95.

The average age of a heroin user in 1995 was 30.

The average age of first use was 23.

The NDC estimates that heroin was used by males and females almost equally.

45.7 percent of those who said they were heroin users gave their race as black, 8.6 percent said they were white, and 45.7 percent said they were `other'. According to NDC counsellor Derrick Binns, the figures could actually be higher as the sample size for the survey was small and homeless people were not surveyed.

Treatment centres like Addiction Services say methadone has several advantages. It has a long lasting effect and need only be taken once a day.

Typically, an addict must get a hit every four to six hours or else he experiences painful withdrawal symptoms. Methadone also blocks the effects of heroin thus making the purchase of the drug by an addict less likely.

In many ways, the use of methadone as a tool for treating addicts has led to a shift in the popular definition of a heroin user as a "junkie'' or "criminal''. He became an "addict'', essentially a person with a heroin dependency in need of intense therapy, counselling, and other support.

At Addiction Services, an addict is interviewed and information such as his name, age, family origin, and history are taken.

After his third visit (most people who enter the programme usually come and then quit at least twice before they are ready to settle down for treatment), the addict will have a complete physical done by a doctor. Those suitable for the programme will then be given a standard dose of methadone, and after four or five days, should become stabilised enough to begin the counselling process.

"We have to make the point that methadone isn't the only way of treating addicts,'' explained Addiction Services coordinator, Bryant Richards. "`There are people who walk through this door who won't be put on the methadone programme because it's not a suitable treatment.

"There are other medications from other programmes that deal with the physical cravings of coming off drugs and I would urge anyone who genuinely wants to come off drugs to still seek help. There are always alternatives.'' According to Mr. Richards, it was after Operation Cleansweep, a crackdown on Giving our all swamped with increased demand. "Once the ripple goes out, people start thinking about going to get some help before they get caught on the street.

"But these things are cyclic and we feel it's better to provide a service for a smaller number of people rather than try and treat everyone and end up giving them nothing.'' PHOTO Addiction Services co-ordinator, Bryant Richards DRUGS SUPPLEMENT DGS