Essex-based charity Drugsline has announced its closure this week, blaming a “dramatic fall” in private donations.

Drugsline founder Rabbi Aryeh Sufrin MBE delivered the news in an email to supporters. In his message, he said: “Despite the exhaustive efforts to try to secure the funds necessary to keep the service going, we have become one of the many victims of the financial downturn.

"Without the crucial support of local government grants and the dramatic fall in private donations, the management group were left no choice but to cease activity.” 
 
The charity, which had been running for 23 years, employed six members of staff and provided support to people struggling with drug or alcohol addiction as well as other addictions such as over-eating or gambling. Its outreach service provided education to students in 90 schools and colleges.

Its most recent financial accounts advise that at 30 June 2011 it had a deficit of £277,287.