The medical officer of Castlerea Prison in Roscommon, Dr Greg Kelly, has warned that the recent opening of a methadone clinic in Galway could attract a "tourist industry" of drug addicts to the west of Ireland.
Referring to the newly published National Drugs Strategy, Dr Kelly pointed out methadone maintenance had been seriously criticised as a long-term treatment for addicts.
Dr Kelly, a Western Health Board member, said there was no in-patient treatment facility in the board region offering detoxification to drug addicts, and that was where the greatest need was.
He explained that methadone was a drug given to addicts to wean them off heroin, but it was equally addictive as heroin, if not more so, and the addict had to take it every day for the rest of his or her life.
"The whole practice is under scrutiny at the moment. There is an element of the medical profession in favour of methadone treatment, but there are also some of us against it," he said.
Dr Kelly said he was the only prison officer in the country who refused to let methadone into the prison despite being under pressure by the Department of Justice. He treated more addicts than any other doctor in the board region.
He said the opening of a methadone clinic in Galway was a very important issue which should have been discussed at board level.
"We are completely avoiding the issue of the consequences for Galway city and the west of Ireland. If we are doling out methadone, we will have a tourist industry of drug addicts coming to the west of Ireland," he warned.
A health board psychiatrist. Dr Fidelma Creaven, said she wished to dissociate herself from Dr Kelly's remarks as methadone was a recognised form of treatment for heroin and opiate addicts.
She explained: "To have people totally drug-free would be the ideal, but that is not the reality. Having a clinic in the west is part of our comprehensive drugs treatment programme."
