After it was revealed by official figures that in Scotland use of methadone is leading to deaths and which has reached a ten-year high, the drug treatment was found responsible for about 32 per cent deaths.

In 2008 the number of deaths due to heroin as a contributory factor was 169 and there was a rise in these deaths last year that were 173. In 2007 there were fewer deaths but till now there has been a 51 per cent rise in such deaths.

There were 545 total deaths in Scotland last year due to drug treatments and after heroin or morphine, was associated with the second-highest number of drug-addict deaths contributing to 322 losses of life.

Figures also stated that due to methadone, in every 48 hours, one death happens.

Seeing this rise it seems that the policy of wide prescription of the treatment to addicts should be reviewed.

Professor Neil McKeganey, the director of the Centre for Drug Misuse Research at Glasgow University, said, "The situation in relation to methadone - where it appears we have around a third of addict deaths associated with the drug we are prescribing most widely to treat drug addiction - is of enormous concern.”