SCOTLAND is getting tough on drugs crime - but questions have been raised over the crackdown.

Jamie "Iceman" Stevenson, was recently jailed for 20 years over a plot to smuggle £100million of cocaine from South America while a new 'charter' for those with addiction has been pledged.

But while there are victories, one former top cop says the way forces tackle narcotics crime generally does not work with plans like that to introduce fix rooms in Scotland delayed again.

Simon McLean was a serious crime squad detective and drug squad officer who's now an author and chairman of Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP) Scotland.

Writing in The Scottish Sun on Sunday he tells how as a serving cop he helped wage the war on drugs.

And the expert, who cohosts podcast Crime Time Inc, says a compassionate approach to addiction is the only way to break the cycle of offending.

Here he gives his take on one of the most contentious topics facing Scotland today….

THIS was a one-sided war. If this really was a war, it was asymmetrical in every way.

We couldn't lose - it was impossible. Doesn't a war require two sides? But here, everything was stacked in our favour.

We never encountered an "undetected" drug crime; our detection rate was always 100 per cent because only the so-called "successes" made it into our figures.

We were the unquestioned rulers of drug enforcement, with government, the media and the public fully on our side.

Our strategy was foolproof. We were catching low-level users, which was like shooting fish in a small barrel.

With each arrest, we wielded all the leverage needed to extract information. For a young or first-time offender, the threat of a criminal record worked every time.

And for the more seasoned "druggie", the hint that we might let them go, risking exposure as an informant, was often enough to gain their co-operation. We used whatever it took.

The council supported us, providing observation flats and houses behind enemy lines.

In some cases, these were right next door to the targets, or high above them and out of sight.

We held so much power that we could take children away, make people homeless or cut their benefits.

We must control regulating drugs steering the criminals

Another powerful tool we had was the investigative process itself. A single call, a quick visit to the home of a supportive Justice of the Peace, and with the slightest pretext, we'd get a signature allowing us to force entry.

We'd tear homes apart to find evidence, often bringing big dogs to intimidate everyone present - including ourselves, to be honest.

No agency was off-limits to us, whether customs and excise, the Post Office, housing or benefits. Because we were the "good guys" and drugs were "bad", we justified nearly any tactic.

Even civilians going about their daily business weren't immune; they could be recruited as lookouts, informants or camouflage.

Their homes became observation points, their cars borrowed, their company enlisted to maintain a cover.

With the moral high ground and overwhelming legal authority, how could we lose?

We actually believed we were winning this "war", just as Police Scotland today continues the fight against organised crime.

I noted with interest the so-called "dawn raids" two weeks ago as part of Operation Silhouette, said to be dismantling a "new and emerging crime gang".

We've also seen the conviction of career criminal Jamie "Iceman" Stevenson, who was importing vast amounts of cocaine in banana shipments from Ecuador.

These are presented as successes, as they were when I was on the frontline of policing.

But looking back, how wrong we were.

We were punishing people who were already victims of circumstance. Contrary to popular belief, addiction isn't a lifestyle choice. It's a reaction to forces beyond an individual's control.

Trauma in childhood, severe poverty, neglect, abuse, homelessness and violence - often fuelled by alcohol - drive people toward drugs. These conditions trap individuals in addiction, making them easy prey for predatory dealers who feed and sustain their dependency.

By enforcing prohibition and punitive laws, we didn't create an escape - we sealed the walls tighter.

There was no support or understanding, no room for compassion, just an escalating spiral of crime and jail time. Rehabilitation, a word trotted out when we needed funding, remained a hollow promise.

And yet, 40 years later, nothing has really changed.

Until we face the reality that we should be helping those caught in addiction's deadly grip rather than punishing them, we'll continue pouring billions into a bottomless pit, filling the pockets of organised crime and losing countless young Scottish lives in the process.

We must take control by regulating the drug market, steering it out of the hands of criminals and into a framework that offers help rather than harm. This requires a shift away from the endless rhetoric of a failed strategy toward solutions that address addiction as a societal issue.

Only by adopting a compassionate, regulated approach, like we accomplished over time when we created the Violence Reduction Unit, can we begin to dismantle the ineffective "war" on drugs and start offering people a real chance for recovery - and a way out of the cycle of crime.

We must take control by regulating the drugs market, steering it out of the hands of criminals.