Source: Sunday Times UK Contact: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 Author: Lucy Adamson DRUGS FOOTBALL TEAM BLOWS FINAL WHISTLE CALTON Athletic, the football team of former drug addicts which advised the makers of Trainspotting and was immortalised in a television drama starring Robbie Coltrane and Lenny Henry, is to be disbanded. David Bryce, director of Calton Athletic recovery group, said its drugs prevention and schools work would continue but its Glasgow drop-in centre would close with the loss of six full-time workers, including Bryce and his deputy, David Main. Both plan to continue as volunteers. All work on recovering addicts will stop, including the day programme which last year saw more than 100 "graduates" from the rehabilitation programme. Prison outreach work will also be discontinued as Calton concentrates solely on prevention and schools. Greater Glasgow health board provides #250,000 for Calton, but Bryce, with the backing of his staff, decided last week to withdraw from funding after criticising the board and the council's social work department. Bryce recently claimed that Calton had fared better under a Conservative government and criticised Labour's lack of support for abstinence-based projects. The group's recently opened drugs awareness academy will continue. Scotland Against Drugs, the cross-party campaign, has contributed #50,000 to the academy which will train drug workers and devise prevention schemes. Additional funds have come from Figment Films, Polygram Video and the Celebrities Guild of Great Britain because of the group's contribution to Trainspotting. Bryce has recently suffered ill-health and says he owes it to his family to reduce the pressure. "It was extremely difficult making these choices but I have a responsibility to the other group workers and the schools action team and this restructuring is for the good of the club," he said. Calton Athletic began 12 years ago as a football team for recovering addicts, as depicted in the television drama Alive and Kicking starring Coltrane and Henry. The group acted as advisers to the makers of Trainspotting and recently received a cheque for #20,000 from video sales of the film. Calton at present works with 1,000 addicts in central Scotland, through the drop-in centre, prison outreach work, and work and education programmes with addicts' families. Bryce said he would "honour present commitments" before restructuring in April. He said Calton hoped to expand its influence south of the border with several projects based on its work in Glasgow. Next month advisers would visit London to meet the Stone Foundation, a charity concerned with drug and alcohol addiction. Thaddeus Birschard, clerk to the Stone trustees, said: "The trustees were immensely impressed and saw Calton as real people doing real work." Bryce said it would be easier to expand in London. "We get more support there than we do in Scotland. We will not stand for anything less than full co-operation now," he said. In May, Calton will visit the Tower Hamlets Drug Challenge Fund in London and work with third division Leyton Orient FC. Dr Tim Crabbe, of Goldsmiths University, is organising a Government-backed conference that will hear the experiences of Calton and its work with sport and drugs. "There's a lot of interest in their ability to use sport as a way to get a message across and their success is reflected in the number of people who come to them," he said. Bryce was optimistic about the future in London. "I feel this is the direction we must head in because of the rejection and mistrust we put up with here," he said. Dr Laurence Gruer, consultant in health and public medicine for Greater Glasgow health board, said he was optimistic that an agreement could be reached but agreed that Calton might have found its working relationship restrictive. David Macauley, campaign director of Scotland Against Drugs, described the decision as "a dreadful loss to the city of Glasgow" and said he was extremely distressed by the news.