A CONTROVERSIAL North-East clinic, which provides two free daily shots of NHS heroin to addicts, cuts crime and reduces street drug-dealing, according to officials.

For two years, heroin addicts at a Darlington clinic have turned up twice a day to get their fix of the highly addictive drug.

There they inject themselves, under supervision and with disposable needles, in booths.

The pilot scheme, one of only three in England, allows addicts to keep in touch with health professionals and avoids the dangers of sharing needles, blood poisoning, hepatitis or HIV.

It also helps addicts to lead a more settled life and allows them to be with their families.

NHS professionals working with addicts at the Darlington clinic are convinced that the scheme has cut crime and reduced illegal drug dealing.

But now the head of the socalled “shooting gallery” trial, Professor John Strang from Maudsley Hospital in London, has confirmed that the clinics reduce crime rates and street dealing.

Prof Strang told The Independent newspaper that the pilot schemes in Darlington, Brighton and London had seen crimes committed by addicts fall from about 40 to six a month after six months of treatment.

Prof Strang, who heads the National Addiction Centre, said a third of the addicts enrolled in the pilot schemes stopped using street heroin, and the number of times the rest bought drugs on the street dropped from every day to about once a week.

Prof Strang said the pilot schemes were “intensive care for drug addicts” which cost about £15,000 a year per addict, a third of the cost of sending them to prison at £44,000 a year.

Britain has about 280,000 drug users.

The professor said the pilot schemes were set up to “break the link with street heroin use and crime”.

Earlier this year, The Northern Echo interviewed a number of addicts who are having treatment at the clinic, which is near the town centre.

One addict said: “By now, I would have been dead if it wasn’t for this trial – either that or my legs would have been amputated.”