04/08/2026
THE APOLOGY
My name is Simon McLean. I was a police officer for almost thirty years. Most of that time was spent in the CID, much of it enforcing Britain's drug laws. Today, I believe those laws have cost lives.
For that, I apologise.
Like every police officer, I swore an oath to uphold the law. I also swore to preserve life, protect the public, and make our communities safer. I now realise that, in fulfilling one part of that oath, I was undermining the others.
For almost three decades, I arrested drug users and dealers, seized drugs, gathered evidence, and put offenders before the courts. I believed I was making Scotland safer.
I wasn't.
We weren't defeating organised crime. We were feeding it. We weren't reducing addiction. We were driving it underground. We weren't protecting vulnerable people. We were criminalising many of them while ignoring the reasons they turned to drugs in the first place.
The so-called War on Drugs has forced an enormous market into the hands of organised crime. It has created an unregulated supply chain worth billions, where violence settles disputes, adulterated substances kill indiscriminately, and children are recruited because they are expendable.
We only see the damage when it reaches our hospitals, our courts, and our mortuaries. By then, it is already too late. The tragedy is that we already know another way.
Around the turn of the century, a police officer in Strathclyde asked a different question about violence. Instead of asking, "How do we punish this?", he asked, "Why is this happening?"
Supported by colleagues and a visionary Chief Constable, that thinking led to the creation of the Violence Reduction Unit. Violence was treated as a public health issue rather than simply a criminal justice problem.
The results were extraordinary.
Glasgow lost its reputation as the murder capital of Europe. Homicides fell dramatically. Knife carrying among young people has reduced. Hospital admissions for violent assaults dropped. Communities became safer.
Not because we arrested more people.
Because we finally understood what was driving the violence and intervened before lives were destroyed. We did not excuse violent behaviour. We understood it. And once we understood it, we could begin preventing it.
So why have we refused to apply exactly the same thinking to drugs? The parallels are obvious. Nobody picks up a knife in a vacuum. Nobody develops a drug dependency in one either.
Behind both lie trauma. Poverty. Mental illness. Abuse. Isolation.
Hopelessness.
With violence, we accepted those realities and built a strategy around them. With drugs, we continue pretending the substance is the problem. It isn't. The substance is often the symptom.
The real causes remain largely untouched while we continue arresting people, seizing drugs and congratulating ourselves on another successful operation. Yet every seizure creates an opportunity for someone else. Every arrest creates a vacancy. Every disruption strengthens the black market we claim to be dismantling.
After almost sixty years, prohibition has failed by every meaningful measure. It has not eliminated supply. It has not eliminated demand. It has not protected our communities. What it has done is enrich organised crime, stigmatise addiction, and cost countless lives.
If we are genuinely serious about saving lives, the answer is no longer difficult. Take control of the market. Regulate supply.
Treat addiction as a health issue. Intervene early. Reduce harm before it becomes another tragedy. None of this is revolutionary.
We have already proved the principle works. We simply applied it to violence instead of drugs. One day, I believe this country will acknowledge that mistake. There will be apologies.
For the lives lost.
For the families shattered.
For the communities we failed.
I am simply unwilling to wait that long.
Simon McLean is a former detective, author, and co-host of the Crime Time Inc. podcast with former Deputy Chief Constable Tom Wood.
