THE work done in East Lancashire and elsewhere by the Blackburn-based THOMAS organisation - Those on the Margins of Society - has been well chronicled and widely praised.

Government ministers have attended their meetings and met people who are now drug-free thanks to the campaigning efforts of Father Jim McCartney and his colleagues.

Addiction is not a glamourous area in which to operate and THOMAS has had to continually fight to raise funds to keep going at the same time as battling against the scourge of drugs.

We all know that the devastating effects of drugs now reach deep into our society.

With this in mind it is extremely disappointing to hear that £26,000 in government funding for work with offenders in Preston and Lancaster prisons has been axed, forcing THOMAS to find cash from its own supporters.

Father Jim is calling for a meeting with the Prisons Minister and Jack Straw to discuss the issue and also highlights a lack of co-ordination in drug services in Blackburn and Darwen which he says have been run by three different people in the past three years.

Thousands of people in East Lancashire are victims of drug-related crime. Reducing that crime, and drug addiction, should not be dependent on charity funds.