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Ex-undercover cop Neil Woods on ending the drugs war
Former undercover cop Neil Woods has been threatened with knives and had a Samurai sword held to his throat – but the images that haunt him are the faces of drug users who needed help.
This, coupled with a stark realisation that the current system is not working, prompted the ex-policeman to speak out and become a leading campaigner for the decriminalisation of drugs.
Woods and author Steve Rolles, will be discussing the issue in public as part of Bristol Take Drugs Seriously week from Friday, September 29 to Saturday, October 7.
is needed now More than ever
Steve Rolles, author of Legalising Drugs, The Key To Ending The War, will take part in a discussion with Woods
Organised by local charitable think tank Transform and Anyone’s Child, which represents a campaign group of families whose lives have been affected by drugs, the citywide series of events aims to highlight a topic that can impact everyone and a system many argue is not working.
“I would be dropped into a city to work my way into regional crime organisations to try and catch the gangsters supplying the heroine and crack cocaine,” says Woods, reflecting on his dangerous life as an undercover cop.
“The first time I did it in Derby it was not that difficult because the gangsters didn’t see it coming.”
Woods’ book, Good Cop, Bad War, documents 23 years in the force, 14 of which he spent undercover, details the journey from early drug busts, to the ever-increasing need for police to develop new tactics in a desperate bid to stay one step ahead of criminals.
“One of the things I did to bypass the tactics gangsters developed in turn, was manipulate people into introducing me. I found that the best people to do this were drug users, because they are vulnerable and easy to manipulate.
“The job did get more dangerous. I had a Samurai sword to my throat and a knife to my groin. All the times I had success, the people who were introducing me were being put at risk because it would eventually come out that they had helped my undercover work.
“I realised that these people needed help and as an agent of the state, I was making their lives harder. But I made the ethical choice at the time that the end justified the means, because some of the gangsters were going as far as to use rape as a weapon.
“I eventually realised that the reason organised crime was getting more brutal was down to me and people like me. Once I realised that and looked back, the ends no longer justified the means. I know that when I worked in Northampton, I caught every single person dealing crack cocaine, but the intelligence said we managed to shut down the supply for just two hours.
“I decided something needed to change and I stopped doing the undercover work. I thought I could bring change from the inside and became an accredited drugs expert in the police.”
Woods says that doing the right thing now is his way of dealing with PTSD
Woods developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which manifested itself as an intense feeling of anxiety.
“It’s not the times my life was at risk that were the memories, it was the faces of the people I had manipulated,” he told Bristol24/7.
“My way to deal with that is to campaign to do the right thing now. I have to speak out because no one is going to hear this from anyone else who has been in my position – that drives what I do.”
The two authors will talk about their respective books as well as the wider issue
Woods and leading expert on drug legalisation Steve Rolles will talk about their respective books, discuss the future of drugs-related crime, as well as the legal aspects of changing policy at Waterstones in The Galleries, on Friday, September 29.
The event will be chaired by Bristol West MP Thangam Debbonaire and starts at 7pm. Tickets cost £2 and are available online.
It is one of a series of events taking place throughout the Bristol Take Drugs Seriously week of action.
Read more: ‘We need a drugs policy that reduces harm and risk’
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