Council is calling on the government to address a "honey pot" drug subculture that is thriving in Frankston, and which it blames on a concentration of pharmacies that dispense opioid replacement therapies such as methadone and buprenorphine.

It comes as five former Frankston mayors and the city's current mayor demand a safer train station precinct and an end to the drug culture in the area.

In a letter to the Premier and Opposition leader, the mayors express concerns about six Frankston pharmacies located within 500 metres of each other that dispense methadone to heroin addicts.

"With 576 clients registered for opiod replacement therapy last year, Frankston municipality seems to be servicing three times more than the Victorian average."

The letter - by former mayors Colin Hampton, Christine Richards, Kristopher Bolam, Brian Cunial, Sandra Mayer and current mayor Darrel Taylor - calls for new rules to prevent dispensing outlets from setting up within a kilometre of each another. This would "immediately dilate the concentration of outlets - and the problems they create", they said.

They also hit out at changes to government policy which they said made the supervision of addicts "more lax". It said some patients supervised at pharmacies hid the therapy in their mouths, and then sold it on the streets. "A drug culture, which includes trafficking, has built up around the station as a result."

It said addicts should be treated "discreetly and humanely" but the system was tipped too far in their favour.

According to a council report, the number of opiod replacement therapy clients in Frankston increased from 192 in 2004 to 576 last year. The needle exchange service in Frankston hands out 800,000 needles every year.

A Department of Health report says the number of Victorians receiving opiod replacement therapy has increased by 28.6 per cent since 2007 to 13755 clients in 2011. The majority of these clients receive treatment in pharmacies.

Last year and earlier this year, Frankston council officers set up cameras to record drug users. A source said the footage showed drug users leaving the needle exchange clinic and pharmacies, and then injecting and exchanging drugs 100 metres away.

The letter also called for politicians to upgrade the Frankston train station precinct, saying the community had been waiting for decades. "For 40 years state governments have directed that Frankston's station precinct be improved. For 40 years, the bureaucrats have not complied." The group are keen to make this a big issue in the marginal seat, held by balance-of-power MP Geoff Shaw, in the lead up to the state election.

Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association executive officer Sam Biondo said any attempt to isolate and displace services that offered opiod replacement therapy were "bound to fail" and would make the community worse off.

Frankston mayor Darrel Taylor said council wanted state government help to build a health hub near Frankston Hospital that replaced the needle exchange clinic across the road from the station, and also connected addicts to other vital services.

"The program is not working. It is a revolving door and has allowed a secondary market in methadone."

Mental Health Minster Mary Wooldridge said pharmacotherapy was an evidence-based and effective treatment for heroin use and reduced crime rates, anti-social behaviour, family violence and the risk of blood-borne virus transmission. She said providing the treatment through GPs and pharmacies "reduce(d) visibility and associated stigma."

Figures from the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia show that Dandenong has eight pharmacies that dispense methadone, while Footscray has 11 and Richmond has five. It is not known how many clients these pharmacies treat.