Under the health department proposal, heroin addicts unable to get into treatment programs could receive methadone daily at clinics and from mobile medical units.

There are 2,500 addicts receiving methadone at 17 clinics in Massachusetts and there is a waiting list of 1,000, state officials said.

Among these former inmates, "there was no statistically significant effect of receiving methadone in the jail or dosage on subsequent recidivism risks".

He lied about his address and so received methadone on a maintenance basis.

About 34,000 more people receive methadone in 122 private programs licensed and regulated by the state, not the city.

About 30,000 are heroin users who receive methadone, a drug that blocks heroin craving, on an outpatient basis.

But as caseloads have grown, an increasing number of people receiving methadone do so without any counseling at all, Dr. Lennard said.

Four times a week Robert is visited by Joy, a former heroin addict who receives methadone.

When the program began, addicts were assessed and divided into three groups, to receive morphine, methadone or heroin.

A fifth of the 600,000 diagnosed heroin addicts in the United States receives methadone.