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SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco physicians will be allowed to prescribe methadone to heroin addicts after the city gained an exemption to the typically strict state and federal laws that regulate the availability of methadone. 

The drug, which is one of few known to control heroin cravings, is usually available only in one-day doses at methadone clinics. With prescriptions, patients will have access to methadone on a more extended basis and should be able to get the drug at local pharmacies. 

San Francisco will get a federal grant worth about $1 million to set up the program. The grant was announced Oct. 29. City Supervisor Gavin Newsom, who was involved in drafting the legislation for it, said patients should be able to get methadone prescriptions from their doctors as early as this January. 

“The human suffering associated with heroin addiction will be mitigated, and the fiscal costs associated with this treatment will be lessened,” Newsom said. 

There are about 15,000 heroin addicts in San Francisco, and the grant is expected to provide treatment for all of them. Newsom said that some of the leading problems that San Francisco emergency rooms treat are flesh-eating viruses and other diseases associated with heroin use. 

He emphasized that he expects the new program to save the city money. 

“We will be able to quantify the money saved,” he said. “The economic impact of getting people off heroin is literally extraordinary. We will save lives.” 

He added that methadone clinics in San Francisco will remain open to meet demand.