The Scottish government today came under pressure to take action on the �escalating� use of the heroin substitute methadone to treat addicts.

The Scottish government today came under pressure to take action on the "escalating" use of the heroin substitute methadone to treat addicts.

Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie said the country was "over-dependent" on methadone just days after it emerged that the annual bill for the drug had reached £25.7 million.

Goldie has now written to first minister Alex Salmond about the 19% rise from the previous year's £21.5m bill.

She welcomed the government's national drug strategy, which recognises recovery and abstinence, but added: "However, as these figures clearly demonstrate, the problem is escalating, not diminishing. It is all too evident that we have become over-dependent on methadone as a treatment, and when we still have addicts waiting for over two years to get other forms of rehabilitation, the scale of the problem becomes clear.

"It is urgent that we move from the aspiration of a new approach, as outlined in the new national drugs strategy, to real action."

Tory MSP Bill Aitken revealed this year's figures in a parliamentary answer by health minister Shona Robison on Wednesday.

The biggest bill run up by community pharmacies was in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, where it cost £11.588m. The next highest bill, £3.663m, was in Lothian.