Whilst providing clean needles and health advice to addicts can aleviate the risks of other health issues, it does not reduce the incidence of use and provides no incentive to become free of substance misuse. Surely the cost of prescribing heroin is high enough within certain areas and the money used can be put to better use within the NHS. I appreciate that it is a major determinent to other areas of society but also feel that it again does not encourage or persuade the addict to become clean as it is then readily available from the doctors. These addicts are also known to take time away from other areas og the NHS as many GP surgeries now have a doctor to deal singularly with these addicts and other patients suffer.