High fliers and city slickers are increasingly likely to abuse heroin, a GP specialising in substance abuse has warned.

Dr Garrett McGovern, who works in clinics across the city, said he has treated an increasing number of people from backgrounds which would not conventionally be associated with heroin use.

"Heroin use is definitely transcending boundaries," he told the Herald.

Dr McGovern, who has been working in the field since 1988, said that he is seeing people from areas that are not themselves blighted by drugs.

"But, unfortunately, the way drug use has developed geographically, we are not far away from it, anywhere."

He pointed out that heroin addiction is a chronic relapsing condition that requires medical help. He said: "It is very treatable with methadone."

He said addicts suffer prejudice in the work place and have to hide their addictions, particularly heroin addiction, from employers.

Discovery

He said: "I have seen people who have been in a good job, who have lost their job on the mere discovery they are opiate dependent, even though their work performance is excellent.

"The treatment for heroin is extremely effective ... and this has been backed up by the scientific research," he said.

Dr McGovern is set to open a medical centre in Dundrum this year, which will have a range of medical services, including general GP services, women's health, and addiction services.

Like others working on the ground, Dr McGovern fears any potential cuts in services in the current economic environment.

He is concerned that staff, including doctors, nurses, counsellors, and pharmacists working in the field, could be lost through redundancies, or if they decide to move on as a result of cuts to their hours.

He said that if there are cuts to frontline services, there will be longer waiting lists for methadone maintenance and inevitably greater crime, because the link between drug use and crime, is well established.

Dr McGovern said nobody wanted to go back to the "dark days of the 80s" when people were being held up at cash machines with syringes of blood.

He said that before 1998, when a methadone treatment protocol was introduced, services were scant and it was difficult to manage the problem.

fdillon@herald.ie

- Fiona Dillon