Alan is dreading the summer. On winter nights he has the cover of darkness when he goes to his local treatment centre. Even then he keeps his hood up. His friends and neighbours in his well-heeled suburb have no idea that their white-collar neighbour is a heroin addict. But on October 1st, 1998, he lost the grip on his secret.
To get his methadone, previously dispensed by a GP, he attended his local treatment clinic. In the queue other addicts looked at him wide-eyed, saying they never knew he was a user. In his first three months at the clinic Alan's methadone dose has doubled. He has started smoking heroin again, and taking a cocktail of tranquilisers and other prescription drugs. Because his urine samples are not testing clear, the centre has insisted he attend daily and increased his methadone dose.
"They're very nice people, the people who run the clinic, but this idea of herding people into a centre smacks of Eastern Europe before the fall," he says.
"I'm trying to get off this stuff. I'm trying to keep it a secret and they're forcing me into the open. The minute you admit you're an addict, you're pigeon-holed. It's Star of David stuff." Another addict, Martin, was on methadone for eight months with a private GP before October. His GP was not registered with the health board so his methadone supply has gone. His treatment centre might be able to give him a place soon but at the moment he is using four to five bags of heroin a day, funding the £100-a-day habit by doing a bit of work and "a bit of robbing."
A regular on the street drug scene, Martin has seen the supply of street methadone dry up, and more people buying heroin as a result.
Peter, a professional with a third-level education in his late 40s, started snorting and smoking heroin 10 years ago. Around five years ago he decided to go on to methadone and found a private GP. "I'm really angry with the idea that you either have to go to some clinic and put your name forward or be cut off. I haven't gone around nicking handbags." He maintained his job while on methadone. "I work hard. I make an honest living and I feel that what I do with my money is my business."
So frightened was he of being identified as an addict in treatment he forced himself to go cold turkey. At one stage he rang up his GP "begging and screaming" and got some codeine tablets. "But I'm OK now and I'm still anonymous so it was worth it."
The names of individual addicts have been changed.