Councillors in Aberdeen will discuss radical proposals to prescribe heroin to drug addicts on the NHS on Wednesday.
Social Work Convener Jim Kiddie wants to introduce a pilot scheme which would see the city become the first Scotland to establish a specialist clinic to treat addicts.
The move would see addicts prescribed diamorphine - a pure form of the drug.
There are estimated to be around 3,000 hard drug users in Aberdeen, with up to 1,800 currently being treated with the heroin substitute methadone. The radical new proposals to tackle the problem effectively mean prescribing the drug on the NHS.
Speaking to STV News last week Councillor Kiddie said he was impressed by results from a similar trial scheme carried out in Europe.
However councillors have questioned why heroin should be made available on the NHS when other drugs are not available to sufferers of numerous other conditions.
Aberdeen chemist Stuart Notman who dispenses heroin to addicts every day doubts the effectiveness of such a scheme.
He says the scheme would only benefit a “very, very, very limited number of patients who are at the extreme end of addiction”.
He also added that the successful programme piloted in Europe may not be down to the prescribed drug itself but rather as a bundle along with "a raft" of other treatments.
The issue is due to go before a meeting of Aberdeen City Council on Wednesday afternoon.
