DRUG experts in the region are hoping to get the go-ahead for radical treatment which involves prescribing heroin to addicts.

Dr Tom Carnwath, a consultant psychiatrist who heads drug services in County Durham, said he was reasonably confident that the North-East would be chosen for a controversial pilot scheme.

Heroin addiction is a growing menace in the region, fuelled by increasing supplies reaching the UK from Afghanistan.

Latest figures suggest there are 200,000 problem heroin addicts nationally.

While heroin has traditionally been associated with larger cities, the drug is increasingly available in towns and villages in the North-East.

Apart from the misery it causes to addicts and their friends and relatives, the increase in heroin addiction is also blamed for much crime.

Experts believe that putting the more unstable addicts on a supervised course of heroin will provide benefits for the addicts and for society.

Earlier this year, Cleveland's new police boss, Chief Constable Sean Price, said he wanted heroin to be available on prescription as a way of beating the dealers, reducing crime and improving effective treatment for users.

Dr Carnwath, one of the UK's leading experts on drug misuse treatment, said he expected the North-East to become a pilot site for research that will test whether some addicts do better on heroin rather than an artificial substitute called methadone.

It follows confirmation that a major research project comparing heroin with methadone is to be mounted by the National Treatment Centre, in London.

It is understood that a number of regional centres in the UK will be asked to take part in research.

The Government has said it wanted to see more doctors in the UK prescribe heroin to addicts who do not respond well to methadone.

But this has been hampered by restrictions on the number of doctors who can prescribe the highly addictive drug.

Dr Carnwath, who is one of around 70 UK doctors licensed to prescribe heroin, said he believed the trial would help prove the benefits of giving a minority of difficult-to-manage addicts heroin rather than methadone.

The consultant is re-organising drug services in Darlington to encourage GPs to look after stable heroin patients while specialists look after more complex cases.