Community / Dogs Against Drugs respond after being reported to charity regulator
- Complainer says charity does not fulfil its stated objective
- Dogs Against Drugs welcomes debate about illegal drugs use in the isles
THE SCOTTISH charity regulator OSCR has confirmed it has received a complaint from a local resident who raised concern about the charitable status of Dogs Against Drugs (DAD).
Donna Schofield, from Brae, told the regulator she believed the well-supported local charity was failing in what it has set out to do, namely the disruption of the illegal drug trade into the isles.
“All statistics prove they are not helping, yet they raise all this money from people who trust they are reducing the problem,” she said in her submission to OSCR.
She said it is her understanding that a charity cannot raise funds for a cause legally and then not achieve its goals.
“Proof that Dogs Against Drugs is effective would be fewer deaths and fewer busts,” Schofield said.
“If I failed at my goals, I would be held accountable by charity law, and I don’t understand how they can raise money for a cause they failed at.”
The latest figures from the National Records of Scotland show that the number of drug related deaths in Shetland has risen to five in 2023.
A spokesperson for OSCR told Shetland News: “We have recently received a concern about Dogs Against Drugs (SC033118) which will be assessed in line with our usual policies and procedures to see if there are any regulatory matters for OSCR.”
Schofield claimed she was not alone with her concerns and wanted to go public to stimulate local debate about problematic drug use in the community and how best to respond to it.
Her complaint comes shortly after DAD’s project manager Michael Coutts was named by local MSP Beatrice Wishart as Shetland’s latest local hero.
In response DAD said they had not been contacted directly by Schofield and were happy to meet at any time to discuss her concern.
Coutts added that he welcomed Schofield’s idea of stimulating public debate on the use of illegal drugs Shetland and added that the charity had been underfunded by the Scottish Government “for over a decade”.
“Recently we were forced to undergo cutbacks in our service due to lack of funds resulting in a redundancy of one handler and the reduction of hours from another,” he said.
“We have gone from providing 120 hours of dog cover a week to 75 hours per week. Currently we are providing less of a service to Shetland than last year.”
He provided statistics showing that the dogs were used 160 times in 2023 (117 times in 2022) and were involved sniffing out £360,000 worth of illegal drugs (£332,000 in 2022).
Coutts said: “Dogs Against Drugs can never be the entire solution to the illegal drugs issues on the island. We are simply one tool in the toolbox to fix the problem. We need all organisations to work together to make a difference.”
Schofield said she was particularly concerned about the impact the Dogs Against Drugs charity had on people with a neurodivergent diagnoses and the stigma and misunderstanding about the condition.
She said people who had been taking legally prescribed cannabis had been the “victim” of the charity and hence have become even more vulnerable and exposed to exploitation and abuse, a claim that has been strongly refuted by Dogs Against Drugs.
Coutts said his officers see many packages containing medicated cannabis daily entering Shetland.
“We have seen a downturn in illegal packages of cannabis entering Shetland, and an increase in prescribed medicated cannabis,” he said.
“If they are legitimately prescribed, they are not seized by our officers. If doctors are issuing prescriptions to people, then that surely is down to the discretion of each doctor.”
In her correspondence with OSCR Schofield also referred to local Green councillor and paediatrician Dr Alex Armitage who has repeatedly made the case for drug use to be treated as a public health issue rather than through law enforcement (See: https://www.shetnews.co.uk/2021/06/21/a-new-approach-to-drug-use/)
When approached by Shetland News last week, Armitage said he had not been aware of the complaint made to the charity regulator, and the reference to him in that correspondence.
He said his views on drugs issues were well known and added that he would agree that drug seizures in which the Dogs Against Drugs charity are usually assisting local police with do not reduce drug related harm, and can often exacerbate the problem.
“Michael Coutts at Dogs Against Drugs and the people who are donating money have good intentions, but the problem is that most low-level drug dealers that are criminalised as a result of the work of police and Dogs Against Drugs are themselves extremely vulnerable people that desperately need help for their own problematic drug use. Putting these people in jail only increases the cycle of harm.
“Every time the sniffer dogs sniff out tens of thousands pound worth of drugs, there will be news articles and comments from police officers saying that we are managing the problem, but the big drug dealers just shrug their shoulders because police seizures are just part of their business model.
“In Shetland we need to change our mind on this. The whole debate about drugs and drug related harm has been monopolised by Dogs Against Drugs – but ultimately this organisation is a part of prohibition – a system that has been failing for over 50 years.
“Three people died in Shetland of drug overdose in 2022, five died in 2023, and already there have been deaths in 2024 and I fear this will continue. These are all avoidable deaths – we need to change our approach.
“If drug use in Scotland was decriminalised, many of these people would have survived, and if we would have a fully legalised, regulated system there would be even less harm.”
Coutts meanwhile said the charity has been receiving “fantastic feedback” over the years from young people and teachers in response to its educational work which aims to inform pupils of the current drugs trends and to give them the correct information to help them make the correct life choices.
