However, he draws the line at leaving children with addicts who have “chaotic” lifestyles.

He explains, “Just because you are a drug- user doesn’t mean you cannot be an effective parent.

“Many can and are. All we are saying is this should be based on need rather than a knee-jerk reaction.

“Evidence shows the best way to ensure children do well is to keep them in their families.

“If you can keep children in families that are supportive, that is a good thing.

“That is why children and family services feel part of their role is to enhance ability to keep children at home.

“Many children are living at home, cared for by parents who need monitoring and sometimes have a very supportive relationship with child-protection services.”

Since his arrival in Dundee five years ago, Dr Kidd has led a major reorganisation of addiction services across Tayside, with an emphasis on supporting addicts to recover.

Previously, many were simply given the heroin substitute methadone and little encouragement to alter their habits.

“One former director of primary care in Tayside described that situation as “NHS-prescribed addiction” after it emerged hundreds spent years on prescribed methadone with no apparent attempt to wean them off.

Dr Kidd chairs an expert group which advises the Scottish Government on addictions policy.

The Scottish Advisory Committee on Drug Misuse has published a new report that attempts to steer services towards helping addicts recover. It advocates children should only be removed from junkie parents if there are serious concerns for their welfare.

The report recommends that more social work services should be aimed at helping addicts look after their children, instead of children being taken in to care.

This followed on from a national review of methadone in Scotland after the death of a toddler in a drug-using family.

Dr Kidd said that review highlighted concerns that Scotland is not making the most of effective treatment for addicts and prompted a further piece of work to look at what additional services should be put in place to allow people to overcome their drug problems — the work that led to the new SACDM report.

“In many areas in Scotland it was not possible for services to even tell the government how many people were on methadone, let alone how well they were doing,” said Dr Kidd.

He explained the new approach called for a move towards recovery from drug addiction.

“Recovery means accepting people can recover and putting in pathways the help people from where they are to normality,” said Dr Kidd. “My group was very big on this.”

The national debate tends to be polarised around those advocating harm reduction or total abstinence, but Dr Kidd said the aim should be for improvement and helping people.

“Someone could be an injecting drug-user with a chaotic lifestyle, but, if they are continuing to improve, we would see that as recovery,” explained Dr Kidd.