The heroin substitute methadone can be used as a way of weaning addicts off heroin but the substitute can also become addictive.
Earlier this year a debate broke out in Scotland when Professor Neil McKeganey, director of the Centre for Drug Misuse Research at the University of Glasgow, said more effort was needed to get people off drugs, including methadone, through abstinence.
The use of methadone has been controversial in recent years
But a group of 40 specialists, including university professors and doctors who treat addicts, responded: "If policy makers were to heed the critics' advice to close down methadone treatment or impose an arbitrary time limit on its administration, the community can anticipate more overdose deaths, more HIV and more crime."
So what do recovering addicts think? Chris used methadone for five years to help wean him off heroin but felt he had to quit the drug substitute last October
"I just thought, I've got to get a grip here, because I've been in and out of prison since I was 16 - that's half my life," he told The Report.
'Wake-up call'Chris, an inmate of HMP Edinburgh, lives in Ratho Hall, a specialist Addiction Support Area that helps prisoners achieve abstinence.
"I heard about Ratho Hall, and it's given me the wake-up call that I needed," he said.
Chris was prescribed methadone, a synthetic opiate that is taken orally, to wean him off his heroin addiction but although methadone can help addicts stabilise their lives, it is also addictive.
Ratho Hall is the only facility of its kind in Scotland. It opened last year in brand new accommodation.
Of the 30 inmates resident last week, 11 have become completely drug-free.
'Quitting methadone'The Scottish government produced its strategy document on drugs, The Road to Recovery, in 2008.
In this, the Community Safety Minister, Fergus Ewing of the SNP, explained how he wants to see "a new vision" for Scotland "where all drug treatment and rehabilitation services are based on the principle of recovery."
This is a shift away from an acceptance that people will stay on methadone for lengthy periods of time unchallenged.
Chris, who started to use heroin when he was 18, talked of his own addiction: "When you're on heroin or methadone your head's hazy. I realised when I was on methadone that I was just putting my life on hold.
"Now I feel that abstinence is a walk in the park compared to taking drugs. When you're abstinent you can just be yourself - it's a weight off your shoulders."
Chris said he could not have done it on his own. In Ratho Hall, there are drug counsellors, regular peer-support meetings and medical staff.
Paul Davidson, unit manager of Ratho Hall, explained how the unit works.
"If guys come in here on a methadone prescription, they have to have a reduction plan.
"So they'll be reduced at a rate they feel comfortable with and the doctor feels is right for them."
Around one in five prisoners in Scotland is being prescribed methadone.
But across the whole of Scotland it is estimated that 22,000 people are taking methadone. Read more...
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