Drug addicts are being given injections of heroin on the NHS

Drug addicts are being given injections of heroin on the NHS under a government-backed plan to deter them from comitting robbery and theft to fund their habit.

Up to 150 addicts at three treatment centres in England will take part in the trial, which until now has been kept secret. The centres will report the results to ministers, police and doctors.

The addicts have been chosen because they have very serious addiction problems. They receive the drug daily under the supervision of nurses and doctors. The use of heroin by doctors is not illegal but they require licences from the Home Office.

Two clinics are already operating. One is at the Maudsley Hospital, South London, and a second is in Darlington, Co Durham. A third is expected to open later in a trial that will run for several years.

Heroin has not been routinely prescribed for addicts since the 1960s, when the “British system” was abandoned. Doctors were allowed to issue prescriptions to addicts but the practice was abandoned after a series of scandals in which half a dozen London doctors were overprescribing.

At present addicts are usually prescribed a synthetic substitute called methadone, which addicts often say is not strong enough or lacks the “rush” of heroin. Prescriptions are sold on the illicit market and addicts revert to heroin.