Some support groups for women in the county are: Family Abuse Services of Mental Health Association, 345-5900.

The former patients took their complaints to the State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, known as Oasas, which licenses and regulates inpatient and outpatient treatment centers.

"It's like the Dark Ages," said Larry Simon, criminal-justice coordinator of the Suffolk Department of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Services.

The grants were approved by the State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, which receives 40 percent of proceeds, after expenses, from seizures under the state law.

The first deputy director of the State Division of Substance Abuse Services, Norwig Debye-Saxinger, said that his agency opposed giving out free needles for many reasons.

"Right now there's nobody in charge," said Jean Somers Miller, Commissioner of the State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services.

"We think this is a balanced approach, one with parameters that make sense," said Jean Miller, Commissioner of the state's Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services.

Her mother, Esther Feintuck, is a therapist with Domestic Abuse Services in Greenwich.

Vivian Blackledge, of Domestic Abuse Service, has speculated that financial problems are the cause.

Cocaine was always the drug of the affluent, said John Galea, supervisor of the street studies unit for the state's Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services.