THE director of the anti-drugs agency set up by Scotland's four political parties will resign this week in protest at Labour's "lack of political will" in tackling the problem. David Macauley said the government was projecting "mixed messages" to young people about the dangers of substance abuse and was more interested in sustaining a "drugs industry" of health workers rather than dealing with the problem. Scotland Against Drugs (SAD) was formed two years ago in a cross-party initiative by Michael Forsyth, then the Tory Scottish secretary, and is chaired by Sir Tom Farmer, the chairman of Kwik-Fit. [continues 393 words]
SCOTLAND faces a new drugs hazard: young trawlermen are regularly leaving port for long fishing trips suffering withdrawal symptoms from heroin, methadone and temazepam. They are also using narcotics at sea. Drug workers are to publicise the problem, which has been confirmed by trawler skippers, this week. Of the six drugs-related deaths in Grampian since January, two were fishermen and since December 22 last year there have been 23 near-fatal overdoses in the Fraserburgh area alone, all of them fishermen. [continues 238 words]
DAVID MACAULEY, the outspoken director of Scotland Against Drugs, looks set to quit after the government's announcement last week that the group's funding is to be cut by 75%. Donald Dewar, Scottish secretary, reaffirmed support for the anti-drugs campaign for a further three years, but said funding would be reduced to £1m. The campaign will be refocused to concentrate on local community issues and fund-raising business initiatives. Advertising campaigns will be dropped. The campaign's advisory committee, which consists of more than 30 members from business, the church and the media, as well as health professionals, will be reduced to a panel of six. [continues 214 words]
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. [continues 529 words]
