Neil Woods spent fourteen years as an undercover police officer, helping dismantle some of Britain’s most notorious drug gangs.
Yet after his biggest victory he came to the conclusion: was it worth it?
He started to feel that the problem was helped by repeated failures of governments to tackle the cause of Britain and America’s drugs epidemic. In fact by handing control of drugs supply to criminals governments were the cause.
‘A doctor controlling it (drugs supply) with a prescription pad has no incentive to find new customers and so the market doesn't develop. So what happened is it becomes a pyramid scheme. If you're organised crime, you want to find new customers, you find someone who's addicted and you say, ‘Look, if you find five more customers and you sell to them, they'll pay for your habit’ and the pyramid scheme explodes.’
Neil’s views are controversial views. But they are compelling. In this interview Neil describes:
How the world used to experience two competing drug policies: The American System and The British System - with the American System winning.
How following criminalisation in the 1960s, addicts fell into the hands of organised crime.
How some schemes decriminalising drugs have worked in recent years.
To find out more about Neil and to get copies of his books ‘Good Cop, Bad War’ and ‘Drug Wars’ click here: https://www.neilwoods.net/
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