Subj: UK: Scotland: Drugs chief resigns with attack on Blair



Date: 31 Aug, 1998



Source: The Scotsman





Drugs chief resigns with attack on Blair

JOHN McCANN



DAVID Macauley, the director of Scotland Against Drugs, has 

blamed his decision to resign on a "lack of political will" 

on the part of senior Government figures, including Tony 

Blair and Sam Galbraith, the Scottish health minister.



Mr Macauley will tender his resignation from the UKP40,000-a-

year post today, claiming that he has had to fight a 

"confused message, if there is one at all" on the drugs 

problem.



In a devastating broadside as he prepared to step down, Mr 

Macauley warned of a funding crisis in drugs education as 

businesses begin to resent having to finance essential 

Government projects.



Mr Macauley, 37, said that the visit of Noel Gallagher, the 

Oasis guitarist, to Downing Street had given young people 

the impression that the Prime Minister was prepared to 

tolerate drug abuse. "It's not just me criticising Tony 

Blair; the young people I talk to say they felt he was 

supporting drug taking, The Gallaghers are in their 

magazines and on the television and that message is getting 

across."



Mr Macauley feels the decision not to prosecute the son of 

the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, for selling cannabis was a 

symptom of Government-led confusion. "If you are caught 

drunk-driving in Ayr or Sauchie you know it's unacceptable 

and you'll get banned. If you're caught with a couple of 

joints, prosecution depends on where you are. It confuses 

the police and the public.



"In January, SAD's budget was slashed from UKP2 million to 

UKP500,000 as ministers decided to give it a new role as 

purely a fundraising body."



Mr Macauley said that that role could be in jeopardy as the 

revamped organisation lacked the "public face" to attract 

companies such as Marks & Spencer and Scottish Power, which 

have contributed to the more than UKP2 million raised in two 

years.



He said that the chairman of an unnamed utility company had 

warned him that business was becoming reluctant to support 

schemes that should be publicly funded. He added: "It was 

left to us to finance drugs awareness training for staff in 

2,500 primary schools across Scotland. What  does  that say 

about the Government's priorities?"



Mr Macauley said that Mr Galbraith  had  "accepted a policy 

that encourages harm reduction without acting on the 

difficult social problems that have to be addressed" and 

said that, with 64 deaths in Strathclyde this year, "harm 

reduction alone is not enough".



He praised Henry McLeish, the Scottish home affairs 

minister, for his visit to Easterhouse, where he met parents 

and children after the death of Alan Harper, 13, who died of 

a heroin overdose. But he said that Mr McLeish must take 

action to improve the quality of life in housing schemes to 

offer an alternative to drug use.



Mr Galbraith said: "Mr Macauley helped to get SAD off to a 

strong start, but given the need to have the director fully 

on board, he is right to stand down and let someone else 

drive it forward."



Councillor Gaille McCann, who works with the Mothers Against 

Drugs group in Easterhouse, said: "I'm absolutely devastated 

to hear this, David was the only one who knew what the 

situation is and what the answers are."



Mr Macauley defended last year's press advertising campaign. 

accused of perpetuating the "Just say no" message that has 

failed in the past. He insisted the campaign addressed the 

real concerns of young people. "Our research showed that 

some teenage girls felt that they had been taken advantage 

of while on drugs, while teenage boys are more worried about 

getting spots on their gums than overdoses," he said.



He said the need for a coherent social and criminal policy 

is obvious, and that British culture must do with drugs what 

it did with racism and drink-driving. "Noel  Gallagher's PR 

people would never let him go on television and say things 

that were racist. We need to apply the same rules to drug 

abuse," he said