There were 81 heroin users in the Northern Sound region in drug treatment last year. According to details released under a Freedom of Information request by Northern Sound, they received substitute medication.
15 female patients in Cavan and Monaghan received 512 prescriptions of opioid substitution medication last year. 66 men in the region received 2,334 prescriptions.
In Ireland, the main treatment for opioid addiction involves methadone and the drug buprenorphine. Nationally, almost 8,300 people received opioid-substitution treatment in the first 11 months of last year. In the vast majority of cases, this is used to treat heroin-addiction.