Limited spaces and restricted funding for drug treatment programmes is leading some addicts to crime to fund their habit.

One beneficiary and synthetic heroin addict, David Ratterhad had waited nine months to get on the methadone programme and Capital and Coast District Health Board said that on current tracking he had about another seven months before he could start the programme, the Dominion Post reported.

He said he was on the brink of committing armed robbery if he had to wait any longer.

Mr Ratter, 44, of Wainuiomata, who has a long list of convictions and has been jailed several times for theft and fraud, said the wait to kick his $200-a-day habit was ridiculous.

He had been shoplifting and said he might turn to robbery next.

"The Government can come up with money to put us through the court system and pay for the police and put us in jail. But they can't come up with a couple of grand a year for the medication we need to stop us."

Mr Ratter said going "cold turkey" had produced cold sweats, stomach cramps and insomnia. He said he wanted to change his life but there was no help.

More money was needed to be put into treatment programmes as 80 percent of all crime was alcohol or drug related, Wellington alcohol and drug assessment and counselling clinical manager Roger Brooking said.

Research from Massey University in 2009 showed that one in five methamphetamine and intravenous drug users used property crime to help finance their addiction.

The Health Ministry funds 429 spaces in Wellington, Hutt Valley, Porirua and Kapiti. The Ministry spent $14.1m on methadone programmes in New Zealand in the year ended June 30, 2010. It spent $118m on alcohol and drug treatment in the same period.