The 30-year-old Philadelphia native spoke at a rally on Sunday in support of allowing a Newcastle methadone clinic to relocate nearby rather than being forced to close. 

“If you try and take methadone out of the community you will see a spike in crime, deaths and overdoses from people trying to buy methadone off the streets,” he said. 

“I don’t want Newcastle to go the way that many cities in the US have.”

ABC Pharmacy, which supplies methadone to about 350 patients, must vacate its Hunter Street West premises before December 1, when its lease ends.

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Pharmacist Nick Bakarich, who has operated the pharmacy since 2010, has purchased another Hunter Street building in the hope of keeping the service open. 

However a change to state legislation relating to the operation of methadone clinics in 2013 has prevented the pharmacy from relocating. 

Mr Bakarich is yet to hear if his application to NSW Health for exceptional circumstances consideration would be approved. 

“Most community pharmacies don’t provide a methadone service,” Mr Bakarich, who also runs a similar business at Hamilton South, said. 

“The patients who come here don’t want to be exposed to the wider community because there is a stigma associated with their treatment.” 

Mr Hooker, whose home town has been described as “the largest open-air narcotics market for heroin on the US East Coast” said the benefits of community-based methadone clinics far outweighed the negatives. 

“There was a woman here today who has just got her children back because she was able to clean up,” he said. 

“The [Hunter Street] clinic opens at 7.30am so people can get their methadone and then go and live productive lives.”

A NSW Health spokesperson  told The Herald last week that if a pharmacy closed down the relevant local health district would make arrangements to ensure there was no disruption to patient care.