ALMOST 30,000 prescriptions for methadone were handed out across the region last year, government records have revealed.

According to the Department of Health doctors in Southampton signed off 4,000 scripts between April 2009 and March this year while across the Hampshire Primary Care Trust area the number reached more than 27,000.

Methadone is used as heroin substitute when trying to get people off the drug.

Many pharmacists require the patient to swallow the medicine and prove they have before leaving the pharmacy after people were holding the drug in their mouth and selling it on.

Prescriptions can cover anything from a single dose to a two week order.

The cost to the tax payer is thought to be between £3,000 and £4,000 per patient, per year.

For at least the last two decades, the prescription of methadone to help drug users beat their addictions has been a growing phenomenon.

The figures come at the end of Tackling Drugs Week. Across England 2.4 million prescriptions were dispensed.

Methadone is also an effective painkiller, and is often used to ease moderate to severe pain in patients recovering from operations and serious injuries in injectable or tablet form. It is also used to ease the pain of terminal illnesses.