At a recent meeting of Largs Probus Club, Jim Duffy, a retired Strathclyde police officer, gave a very interesting talk on Drug Control through Legislation. He covered the problems with the current drug misuse legislation and his involvement with Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). In his 32 years in the Police, he had worked for 22 years as traffic ‘cop’, and 4 years on the ‘beat’, so he had plenty of experience of the challenges the drug scene in Scotland brings to the authorities.
The war on drugs began in 1971 with the Misuse of Drugs Act. Prior to that drug problems had been treated through the NHS. It followed on from the prohibition of drugs by the Nixon Administration in the USA. The Nixon presidential campaign in the late 60s had been looking for a Law-and-Order issue and jumped on a War on Drugs as the way forward. This led to the banning of marijuana and resulted in a dramatic increase in the use of harder drugs! It also caused the numbers imprisoned to increase dramatically. His aim had been to disrupt the Hispanic drug trade.
Moving to today, the USA has 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the prison population (based on available data). The Harrison Act of 1914 had made it illegal for people of Chinese descent to smoke opium, not other ethnic groups. Over the years the act, has led to racial and social disparities. Minority communities were disproportionately affected by stricter laws and harsher penalties, fuelling discussions about systemic inequality in drug enforcement. Critics argued that the act not only criminalised addiction but also perpetuated stigma against those seeking help.
The problem as Jim explained is that the trade is all about money. The prohibition of drugs had guaranteed a market for organised crime. This was very much what had happened with alcohol in the US in the ‘20s and ‘30s. Al Capone made his money that way, but was caught for tax avoidance, nothing to do with importing alcohol from Canada. The drugs market is the third biggest in the world, after arms and oil. Yet it is unregulated; no licence is required to manufacture or sell drugs, it continues behind closed doors. Have drugs become harder to obtain since the UK legislation was introduced? No, in 1975 you could buy a ‘tenner bag’ for £10, it is only £20 today, the price rise being far less than inflation, such is the availability.
It’s all about the money, they don’t pay tax, and drug dealers are particularly good at what they do, they have transport managers, lawyers and accountants, people to propagate the drugs and if they are caught, they attend the court hearings, listen to the police evidence and work out where they went wrong and they then make sure they don’t do it the next time.
Indonesia and China both tried shooting drug dealers, but that had no effect. Prior to any legislation, drugs were not illegal, they were available for relaxation etc. For example, the Scot, James Matheson, was a significant player in the opium trade through his company, Jardine, Matheson & Co., becoming one of the largest opium dealers in China during the 19th century. He and his partner became extremely wealthy from this business, but were both also MPs, the business did not affect their social standing.
Today medicinal cannabis is available in the UK, but that is all. However, alcohol and nicotine are both drugs, but allowed, because people like a drink, smoking used to be socially acceptable, but is now discouraged by taxation due to the health issues. Trauma sufferers, such as ex-servicemen, need a coping mechanism, unfortunately alcohol, smoking and drugs fill that void when treatment is not available. But nobody is known to have died from a cannabis overdose, yet alcohol and nicotine are responsible for many deaths.
Cannabis contains two active compounds of interest: THC – Tetrahydrocannabinol. It is the principal psychoactive constituent of Cannabis, the compound that gives the ‘high’ – it is called a recreational drug. THC, also known pharmaceutically as dronabinol, is also used medically to relieve a number of symptoms. The other active compound is CBD – Cannabidiol, and along with THC accounts for up to 40% of the plant’s extract. Medically, it is an anticonvulsant used to treat two rare forms of childhood epilepsy. It is also sold as a herbal dietary supplement and promoted with unproven claims of particular therapeutic effects.
Jim went on to talk about the problems and what might be done to solve them. Firstly, cannabis variants are grown (illegally) with enhanced THC levels. The same goes for other plant-based drugs, better yielding variants have been bred. It is a huge industry; however, it is the recruited growers and sellers that get caught, not the ‘Mr Big’ behind the business.
To make his case, Jim described the positive experiences in the US, Portugal and Switzerland where drug reform, regulation and control had been introduced. Marijuana was legalized in Colorado in 2012. Some $700m worth was sold in the first year. Twenty per cent of this revenue was tax which the State could use for public purposes. Just as important, $700 didn’t go into the coffers of organized crime. The ‘industry’ now employs 10,000 people and generates a revenue of $1 billion of which 20% goes to the State’s coffers.
In 2001 Portugal decided to treat drugs as a public health problem rather than a criminal one and now has one of the lowest drug related death rates in Europe. Needle transmitted diseases also declined dramatically.
Over a decade ago, Basel in Switzerland had a major problem with drug usage in their parks. Since they introduced a number of public health measures including Drug Consumption Facilities for drug users, there had been no deaths in the last 15 years. The crime rate also decreased by 60%. Jim noted that the addicts’ lives were stabilized and the addicts had become part of the community once more, a great achievement.
LEAP stands for Law Enforcement Action Partnership: LEAP in the USA, and LEAP UK in the U.K. It is a growing international organisation that advocates an evidence-based drug policy and related criminal justice reforms. The group is made up entirely of serving and former police and other law enforcement officers.
Their banner message is that ‘the war on drugs has been lost, it is a complete and absolute failure and will never be won under the current circumstances; we’ve been fighting the war on drugs since 1971.’
Their mission at LEAP UK is to reduce the multitude of harmful consequences resulting from our current drug policies and to lessen the incidence of death, crime, addiction, and the disenfranchisement between the police and communities. They are advocates for evidence-based policies with a public health focus for drugs and mental health. Jim has been involved with LEAP UK since his retirement. They would like to see legislation in place to legalise and then regulate drugs. As long as drugs are unregulated it is a cash cow for the drug barons.
Background information: Glasgow’s Safer Drug Consumption Facility opened in 2025, but has come under criticism, even though its aim is to make drug use safer. When drugs are still illegal, this is very difficult. The Scottish Government published an alcohol and drugs strategic plan 2026 to 2035 in March 2026 to prevent harms from alcohol and drugs. In January 2021, the former First Minister announced a National Mission to reduce drug deaths and harms supported by an additional £250 million funding between 2021 to 2026. This new strategic plan promotes prevention and recovery, and sets out their long-term approach to addressing alcohol and drug harms. It covers: harm reduction, treatment, residential rehabilitation and monitoring and evaluation. There is no mention of the cost of this plan.
In 2025, Scotland recorded 1,133 drug-related deaths, marking an 11% increase from the previous year, making it the country with the worst drug death rate in Europe. Jim explained that we need to change the way we view drugs, by taking away the criminality. Legislation is required; the drugs market costs governments money, whereas alcohol and tobacco make money through taxes. Regulation would enable the sale of pure drugs of known potency, cutting overdose errors and eroding the criminal drugs monopoly.
41 states in the USA have legalised cannabis, seeing benefits similar to Colorado, but 7 countries in Europe have major problems because there is no control. Control legislation might give 75% control, but that would be defined as a success! Drugs are everywhere, if a person wants them, they are available, even through to prison populations.
It’s not possible to do justice to Jim’s talk in this blog. Crucially he presented a powerful case for reform, regulation and the control of drugs. There are many angles to it: improved public health, making our streets and parks safer, strengthening communities, reducing police and prison costs, tackling organized crime and, as demonstrated in a number of US States, generating healthy tax revenues. Jim demonstrated it’s really a no brainer. It just takes one thing: the government to say “Sorry we’ve got it wrong.”
These links are to talk Jim Duffy has given: Dublin in 2015 and Burntisland (Fife) in 2017.
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New members are always welcomed at the Club. If you are 50 or over, retired, or nearing retirement, (men only, I’m afraid, sorry ladies) you can attend three meetings as a guest and find out what a relaxed and friendly time we have. That’s plenty of time to decide whether to become a Club member or not. Please check out our programme and fill in our Contact Form if you wish to attend as a guest, or to enquire about joining.
Largs Probus Club will next meet in the Willowbank Hotel on Wednesday 4th November at 10am when Sean Szalc will give a talk on the WWII Poland.