PLANS to expand a Morecambe drug clinic has horrified local residents. Shopkeepers and residents in the Deansgate area of the resort claim the planned expansion of the drugs advice and needle exchange centre will make the area "a disreputable, no-go zone." But health chiefs say the move to bigger premises will help control the escalating drug problem and help stop the spread of Aids.

Residents are particularly concerned at plans to use the shop to centralise the supply to addicts of the heroin substitute, methadone.

"The addicts hang around the streets and get very agitated if there's a problem getting their drugs," said one distressed resident who called the Citizen.

"This is a residential area with a school close by. We've had to put up with discarded needles in the street and to think that they are going to hand out drugs to all the areas addicts from this one shop is horrifying. I know we need this sort of service but what's wrong with a hospital or health centre?"

Ward councillor Terrie Metcalfe said she sympathised with residents but felt caught in the middle.

"A lot of people are genuinely concerned and rightly ask if this sort of thing has to happen on their doorsteps," she said. "But drug addicts need help and there's no good burying our heads in the sand and pretending it doesn't happen. At the end of the day we need the clinic to help what is a growing problem in society."

The Deansgate Clinic has been open for seven years and Lancaster NHS Trust has submitted plans to move to bigger premises next door.

They claim the new centre will improve their counselling services and help control the increasing abuse of methadone prescriptions.

A spokesman said: "Our services are geared to helping the individual gain control of their drug use with the long term aim of reduction or abstinence. People who use the service are less likely to be injecting with contaminated needles, reducing the risk of HIV spreading locally. It also reduces the risks of methadone being available to youngsters by ensuring its use is tightly controlled and supervised."

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