A drug prevention program which started in Butler in 2003 has lost its permission to receive state funding next year because a state department labels it “scare tactics.”

The Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs issued an e-mail notification Nov. 19 advising of its decision regarding Reality Tour, a program developed and founded by Norma Norris, executive director of the nonprofit CANDLE.

In the e-mail, which Norris said was sent to every county-based drug and alcohol department in Pennsylvania, DDAP officials say that beginning July 1, 2016, department funds can no longer be used to fund the program, and advised the county agencies that control prevention funding to look to other programs when considering educational initiatives.

The department’s e-mail states, “As the program relies heavily on the use of scare tactics, which prevention research indicates is an ineffective strategy, DDAP discourages the use of this program and encourages SCAs (Single County Authorities) to direct limited prevention funds to programs and activities with greater evidence of effectiveness.”

Norris called the state’s e-mail “poison” and “a lie.” She said the program has been studied by multiple researchers and is listed on the federal government’s registry of evidence-based programs.

“The bottom line is, what they’re saying is a lie,” she said of the agency’s e-mail. “The essence of it is, they’re shutting down a nonprofit.”

Norris said she expects the department’s decision to reduce CANDLE’s revenue by about 30 percent. The organization is paid about $3,500 each time it sells the program.

Norris said she expects the department’s decision also to impact small grants through the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, which provides awards of $1,000 to $2,000 to groups to organize the local Reality Tour events.

Reality Tour is a three- hour “comprehensive experience” for parents and children which is “anchored” by a dramatic portrayal of a teenager on heroin, according to CANDLE’s website.

Norris said the program’s dramatic scenes total about 20 minutes, and said she has yet to hear from DDAP officials regarding how their decision was reached or what the department’s definition of “scare tactics” is.

“It’s a big hair to split,” Norris said. “The health care industry uses this all the time. How often do you see lungs filled in with black to say ‘stop smoking?’”

DDAP spokesman Jason Snyder said in a statement the department doesn’t believe Norris’ program is effective “based on the (DDAP) review of Reality Tour in comparison with the best available research”

“The program is a one-time event, meaning it does not provide participants repeated interventions to reinforce the original prevention goals,” Snyder said.

He said research shows that model is “ineffective,” and said Reality Tour also lacks “outcomes data from a valid and reliable evaluation.

“With Pennsylvania in the midst of its worst ever overdose epidemic and public health crisis, the need for prevention strategies that will help us save lives is more pronounced,” Snyder said.

Norris believes the state’s decision it based in part on pushback from researchers at Penn State University, who she said have always viewed her program unfavorably.

“There’s nothing else I can be elevated to, I just don’t have Penn State’s blessing,” Norris said.

She called DDAP’s decision irresponsible.

“If it keeps one kid from getting this message, that is a crime,” Norris said. “They have no way to reach the thousands of parents and kids that we reach. They don’t have anything in place.”

Norris said the program, which CANDLE says is used in 19 Pennsylvania counties, Canada and six states, has a sold-out event today in Westmoreland County.

“We only exist because there is demand. No one else is meeting that demand,” Norris said. “The implication (from the state) is ‘just wait until we find the perfect program. Hang in there a little longer. Let a few more kids die.’”