A former Scottish detective has claimed the country’s approach to illegal drugs is helping to fuel organised crime by creating a lucrative black market for criminals.
Simon McLean, a former undercover drugs officer, argues that prohibition has failed and Scotland should instead consider an approach based around decriminalisation, regulation and rehabilitation.
Speaking on the latest episode of the Crime Time Inc podcast, which he hosts with fellow former detective Tom Wood, McLean said organised crime groups were benefiting from the illicit market created by existing drugs laws.
“We need to start by taking away the market from organised crime,” he said.
McLean argued that criminal groups gain significant wealth, power and influence from supplying substances which have been prohibited.
He added: “The way we’re currently approaching it is actually feeding the fire.”
The comments came during a discussion examining whether the long-running “war on drugs” has worked and the relationship between prohibition, addiction and organised crime.
The episode revisits comments made around 20 years ago by the late Scottish judge Lord McCluskey, who was a prominent critic of existing drugs policy.
McLean said the important distinction in McCluskey’s argument was that prohibition was not merely failing to solve the problem but could itself contribute to the conditions in which the illegal drugs market flourishes.
He said making substances illegal pushes people who use them towards a criminal market controlled by organised crime groups.
McLean, who previously worked undercover tackling drugs in Glasgow, said taking control of supply away from criminals could reduce their ability to profit from the trade.
His co-host Wood, however, challenged some of the practical implications of adopting a radically different approach.
The former detective questioned who would supply drugs under a regulated system, whether easier availability could increase consumption and whether Scotland currently has sufficient treatment infrastructure to support such a change.
McLean argued that any alternative should combine decriminalisation with regulation and rehabilitation rather than simply making drugs more readily available.
The discussion comes almost two decades after McCluskey delivered a highly critical assessment of the war on drugs.
Wood, who knew the judge through his own work in alcohol and drug strategy, said he remembered McCluskey’s intervention.
“I think he was brilliantly right,” he said.
McLean has previously spoken publicly about changing his views towards drugs policy following his policing career.
Despite having worked as an undercover officer targeting the drugs trade, he has said the persistence of the problem convinced him that traditional enforcement had failed to deliver the changes officers hoped to achieve.
The latest Crime Time Inc episode, The War on Drugs: Has Prohibition Failed?, was released on Sunday and examines organised crime, Scotland’s drug deaths and treatment services as well as possible alternatives to prohibition.