Former Scottish drugs detectives call for regulation not prohibition
LEAP Scotland wants a science-based change in approach on drugs
Last updated 21st Jan 2021
Past and present police officers in Scotland are calling for urgent changes to be made to current drug laws.
They're forming an organisation called LEAP Scotland, along with former law, military and health workers to press the Scottish Government to regulate the use of drugs in what it calls a "compassionate, science-based reform in policy".
Simon McLean's a retired detective and worked with Strathclyde Police for decades and is telling West FM when they tried to shut down the drug scene forty years ago, it only fuelled it.
“I spent my career infiltrating and arresting major drug rings thinking I was making a positive impact on our society," he says.
"What we did was create this black market" - Simon McLean
"I now know for a fact that through our many ‘successes’ I was actually making the situation more dangerous, creating a marketplace where there is no rule of law, one in which anything goes in the pursuit of profit and power: Organized crime has flourished.”
He recalls the results of one raid in Govan.
"For about ten days no one could buy anything. What we didn't know at the time was they were all going to the Gorbals, or Possil.
"We didn't disrupt anybody's supply. But within a week there were more dealers, more entrepreneurs ready to fill their boots.
"Nothing we did made any positive impact. We thought we were the good guys, saving the world, but in acutal fact what we did was create this black market.
"I'm not saying that by simply regulating drugs, and decriminalising drugs, that would solve the problem - it wouldn't. If we did that - took control of the market - and put in place the resources to help people who have problematic use of drugs, now we're talking.
"Everything that we buy is regulated. Everything that we put in our home. You can't plug in a kettle which hasn't been put through a process to make it safe, so it's not a strange concept."
Outdated laws
2021 will be 50 years since the passing of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act and Simon McLean says the laws officers are trying to enforce are out of date.
"I don't know any other legislation that's been left that long.
"If you look at it you'll see it talks about 'opium houses' and 'smoking dens.' It was designed for a different age."
"National Mission"
The launch of LEAP Scotland comes as the First Minister pledges a quarter-of-a-billion pound "national mission" to tackle Scotland's drug deaths.
Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, the First Minister accepted more could and should have been done in recent years to stem the increase in deaths - which rose to 1,264 in 2019.
Ms Sturgeon said the figures are a "national disgrace'' and it is a "reasonable criticism'' to say the Scottish Government should have done more.
"But I am determined that we will provide this national mission with the leadership, focus and resources that it needs,'' she told MSPs.
"This funding - a total of £250 million over the next Parliament - will support further investment in a range of community-based interventions, including primary prevention and an expansion of residential rehabilitation"