TEN YEARS ago Ballymena was pretty much heroin-free. Now, the Antrim town is home to upwards of 500 addicts and ripe for an HIV epidemic. You'd have thought that such grim figures would have brought about a decisive response from the Northern Ireland Office but, nope, the best they've come up with so far is a £5.5 million drugs awareness programme.

While no one can criticise the glossiness of their leaflets, the prevailing mood in Liam Neeson's birthplace is that they've been abandoned by the relevant authorities.

"Everybody agrees that there's a problem, yet Northern Ireland remains the only part of the UK without a needle exchange programme, or mechanism whereby people wanting to get off it can go to their GP for methadone," says Dr. Karen McElrath, an American academic who's currently based at Queen's University. "As a result, you've got one-off needles being used as many as 30 times, and addicts begging for treatment that doesn't exist here.

"Ballymena's had the press attention, but the situation is just as bad in Bangor and parts of Belfast."

Funded by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, McElrath has carried out the first major study of heroin use in the Six Counties. In it, she talks to 35 addicts and makes some interesting discoveries.

"Well, they weren't so much discoveries as confirmation of things that I'd already suspected," she resumes. "Contrary to the impression that it's solely a product of social deprivation, half of my interviewees were from middle and upper-income backgrounds. These people don't always show up in research because the money they make from work sustains their habit.

"I didn't meet them myself, but a friend of mine is even aware of two GPs who take heroin. Government doesn't like that being referred to because it doesn't fit in with the stereotypical image of it ruining lives. I'm not suggesting that it does or it doesn't, but there are definitely users who are able to control their lifestyles and be productive members of society."

Forced last year to take action, the RUC mounted a four-month operation in the Ballymena area which involved 100 officers and yielded nine arrests. Despite recovering a large amount of heroin, availability on the street remained the same.

It was something of a hollow victory, then, when Detective Superintendent David Thompson commented afterwards that, "We want to send a message to individuals involved in this trade that police intend to attack this problem robustly. We know the heroin scene centres around Ballymena and from this there is a district network.

"The drugs problem in this town is quite substantial, although in the overall scheme of things it is still well down the scale compared to mainland Britain."

What they don't have to contend with cross-channel is the spectre of paramilitary violence. That was brought in to sharp focus last week when a man was injured in a bomb explosion near Derry. Although details at the time of going to press remain sketchy, it appears the device went off when the 22-year-old picked up a bag that had been left in a country lane.

"This is like something you'd read about in America," says the Mayor of Derry, Pat Ramsey. "The drug industry here is taking a direction now which no one in their right minds can want."

Paramilitary involvement is a factor which Karen McElrath acknowledges, but has chosen not to pursue.

"Firstly, I was more interested in the health aspects, and secondly, I knew that as soon as I asked those sort of questions the shutters would come down," she explains. "Getting people to talk to me was difficult enough without introducing another deterrent."

Her calls for a needle exchange programme are echoed by David Tweed, a Ballymena councillor who's involved in the Together drugs counselling service. He recently told The Irish News: "I don't care what anybody says, the problem is escalating to the extent that we have small groups using the same needle. When that happens you cause a virus and that will spread. In Belfast at least 75% of the people who have the AIDS virus come from Ballymena."

Then there's the threat posed by prostitution.

"Young people, both male and female, are selling their body for a 'hit'," warns one of his Together co-workers, David Warwick. "When that starts we're looking at AIDS right between the eyes. The prospect of AIDS frightens me."

Having realised that there's only so much you can do with leaflets, the Northern Ireland Office are expected to OK a pilot needle exchange programme which could be in place by the autumn. Karen McElrath's response to the news is surprisingly muted.

"If the information I've received is correct, and they run it out of chemists, it won't work," she warns. "Ballymena's such a small place that when you go in to get a new needle, someone you know is almost certain to see you. There has to be a greater degree of anonymity."

Ballymena isn't the only town that's recently had to come to terms with junkie culture.

"It's sad to relate but heroin is now being used by young people in Limerick," says Father Joe Young, a community-based priest who's worked in the past with solvent abusers. "The Garda Drug Squad need the resources and manpower to wipe it out before it becomes a major problem here."

Brought in from Cork and Dublin, it's available in the city's housing estates for as little as £15.

"It turned up during the '80s, and disappeared just as quickly when the INLA threatened to beat the crap out of anyone who was dealing it," proffers a local source. "Now, no one gives a fuck, which is why the glue and E brigade have moved on to the hard stuff. There's half-a-dozen parts of Limerick I could go to now and be guaranteed to score."

HEROIN

The Hot Press findings

* It's now available in virtually every part of the country.

* Wraps of it can be bought for as little as £10.

* The last set of annual figures show the Gardam dealing with 884 heroin-related cases.

* Despite an increase in seizures, supplies at street level remain constant.

* Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that doesn't operate a needle exchange programme.