Methadone dispensing should be moved from city centre pharmacies to "hub" locations where addicts can also access social services, a senior police officer in Scotland has said.

Chief constable of Strathclyde Police Campbell Corrigan said there was a "rub factor" when recovering addicts were made to wait in pharmacies alongside other patients and he called for a debate over the location of methadone dispensing pharmacies in the region.

Moving methadone dispensing from inner-city pharmacies would reduce anti-social behaviour, chief constable Corrigan claimed

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Mr Corrigan said he received "frequent comments" from his officers in Glasgow, Ayre and Coatbridge about the behaviour of methadone patients in town centres. It was having a knock-on effect on the rest of society and leading to anti-social behaviour in the areas, he said. He suggested moving methadone dispensing away from town centres to locations where patients could also access needle exchanges and social services, including help for their families.

"We're not trying to stigmatise people with these issues. It's to see whether we can do something that's actually better for them and perhaps less trouble for some of the other parts of society," Mr Corrigan told C+D.

He said he had raised the issue with Strathclyde council, British Transport Police and the local drug addiction forum already and they would be meeting to discuss their plans in the next few months.

Providing recovering addicts with an holistic range of services was a good idea, Royal Pharmaceutical Scotland (RPS) said, but it was "wary" of creating hubs away from city centres.

"Doing so would risk further stigmatising drug misusers, leading to their disengagement from treatment," said RPS Scotland spokesperson Iain Brotchie.

Community Pharmacy Scotland head of policy and development Elspeth Weir also warned that creating specialised hubs could be "costly and stigmatising for substance misusers who need appropriate support to help stabilise their lives".

But the Scottish Drugs Forum welcomed an "informed discussion and analysis" of the issue.

"Pharmacists play a hugely valuable role in the provision of methadone. However, for most people methadone is only a small part of the support they need. And it is the intensive psychosocial support that is too often missing and what people are crying out for," said a spokesperson for the charity.