Pubdate: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 Source: The Scotsman Author: Jenny Booth, Home Affairs Correspondent Page: Front page, 1 & 2 Website: http://www.scotsman.com/ Contact: SCOTS ANTI-DRUGS GROUP'S FUNDING SLASHED THE official Government anti- drugs campaign group, Scotland Against Drugs, has had its advertising and campaigns budget slashed from 2 million to 500,000 in a move which will see its role change dramatically. The Scottish Office has also sacked the group's 32-strong advisory committee of celebrities, media representatives, businesspeople and three drugs experts, and will replace them with a slimmed down panel of six. In a fundamental change of role, SAD will now move away from conducting media awareness campaigns in order to focus on fund- raising. The former committee chairman, the Kwik-Fit entrepreneur Sir Tom Farmer, has agreed to stay on as the chairman of the new panel, but will in future be supported by a vice-chairman who is a drugs policy professional from one of Scotland's local drugs action teams. SAD will remain a cross-party campaign, but Scotland's four political leaders will no longer sit on its advisory panel. Announcing the changes yesterday, the Scottish Secretary, Donald Dewar, did not refer to the controversy which engulfed SAD last June, when its flamboyant campaign director, David Macauley, accused harm reduction groups, which advise young people on safer drug use, of "peddling death" - even though SAD itself funded several such groups. Neither did Mr Dewar mention the tensions caused among Scotland's anti-drugs bodies by SAD's costly and outspoken media advertising campaigns, accused by some of needlessly scaring the public with shock tactics and of repeating the failed "just say no" policies of the 1980s. The tension and controversies are widely thought to have contributed to Labour's decision to reform SAD. Yesterday, the Scottish Office health minister, Sam Galbraith, said simply that the overhaul had been a manifesto commitment, and would have happened whether the criticism had occurred or not. Both Mr Galbraith and Mr Dewar paid tribute to what SAD had achieved in its first two years of existence, while making it plain that in future SAD's efforts would switch away from advertising to concentrate on fundraising. Mr Dewar said: "The campaign's efforts to raise awareness of the scale of drugs misuse in Scotland have made their mark. Tom Farmer and his team, helped by advisory council members and others, deserve credit for that. The emphasis must now be on community effort to prevent drug misuse, and help those affected by it. We are looking for dynamic community action, and projects on the ground that have the full backing and involvement of local agencies and businesses. "As the business arm of Scotland's drugs prevention efforts, SAD will make a distinctive contribution to tackling drugs misuse." The massive financial cut represents a 75 per cent reduction in SAD's 2 million advertising and campaigns budget for 1997-98 to 500,000 in 1998-9. In future the Health Education Board will lead awareness-raising campaigns. But SAD's 500,000 funding for the Challenge Fund - by which businesses are encouraged to match Scottish Office grant pound for pound to spend on anti-drugs work in the community - remains untouched, and will in future be the most important aspect of SAD. Mr Dewar guaranteed to maintain the level of SAD's grant for three years, allowing the organisation to plan more than one year ahead for the first time in its stormy two years. The much-criticised name - SAD - will also remain, as Mr Galbraith said it had become well-known and was recognised by the public. Mr Macauley, who will remain at SAD under the altered title of executive director, declined to comment on the changes. Privately, it is understood that the SAD team are furious at the cuts, and say that without high profile advertising they will not be able to persuade businesses of the calibre of Marks & Spencer and Scottish Widows to donate. There was also anger that, in an implied snub, the announcement was made the day the UK drugs tsar Keith Hellawell was in Scotland for a Scottish Advisory Council on Drugs meeting. Jack Irvine, a PR consultant who has worked on SAD's advertising campaigns, would not comment on budget changes but said staff remained 100 per cent committed. Opposition politicians also declined to criticise the body they have supported since its inception. Jim Wallace, the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, endorsed Mr Dewar's decision to cut the advisory committee, and added: "I particularly feel that the role which SAD has played in relation to Challenge Funding for drug-related projects has been very valuable. The fact that the funding is now on a three-year footing should give SAD a secure base on which to support legislative projects."