LEAP Scotland -Law Enforcement Action Partnership

08/07/2026

05/07/2026

Trafficking is all around us.

05/06/2026

My name is Simon McLean. I am a retired police officer who worked on the streets of Glasgow and across Scotland as a murder squad detective, drugs enforcement officer and undercover operative.

I am increasingly frustrated by the repetitive nature of BBC coverage around drug use, including recent coverage of ketamine. The tone often appears to be based on the belief that simply warning young people about the dangers of drugs will discourage use and reduce harm.

Decades of evidence suggest otherwise. This approach, as part of the wider so-called War on Drugs, has failed. In the view of many people with direct experience of the issue, it has not only failed to prevent harm, it has helped to fuel the very problems it claims to address.

There are many options and areas of discussion that are being ignored by the BBC and by much of the wider media. The very least I would expect from a public service broadcaster is an investigative approach, a balanced debate and a willingness to hear from people with genuine knowledge and lived or professional experience of this subject.

Instead, the public are too often given narrow, repetitive coverage while our young people continue to die.

Is it not time the BBC created a proper forum to examine our options openly?

Is it not time alternative views were aired from people with real knowledge of drugs, policing, enforcement, addiction, treatment, recovery, harm reduction and drug policy reform?

I honestly believe that in years to come, governments will be forced to apologise for their blinkered and ineffective approach to drugs. I also believe the media will have difficult questions to answer about its own role in maintaining that failure.

The BBC is supposed to be a voice of the public. On this issue, it should be leading informed debate, not simply repeating the same failed messages.

Yours faithfully,

Simon McLean

21/04/2026

At last. Be among the first to secure one of the first 50 signed copies. Only to subscribers at www.tartantalesmedia.com