Drug Wars Quotes

“The War on Drugs is actually many different wars. There is the war between the police and the drug dealers. There is the war between different drug gangs. There is the war between the dealers and their own customers. And there’s the war between the community and addicts driven to crime to pay for their fix.”
― Neil Woods, Drug Wars: The terrifying inside story of Britain’s drug trade

“The first casualty of any war is the truth, and the War on Drugs is no exception.”
― Neil Woods, Drug Wars: The terrifying inside story of Britain’s drug trade

“Under the British System, drug addicts were not stigmatised or seen as moral failures. They often lived otherwise ‘normal’ lives, with jobs and families, and were simply helped to manage their condition in the least harmful way possible.”
― Neil Woods, Drug Wars: The terrifying inside story of Britain’s drug trade

“Crime is driven by opportunity. Cartoonish visions of ‘inherent evil’, or inevitable reactions to social conditions, are far too reductive.”
― Neil Woods, Drug Wars: The terrifying inside story of Britain’s drug trade

“It was the drug war that spurred the growth of intelligence-led policing, leading to a massive expansion in the use of informants. It was also the drug war that sowed corruption into this very process.”
― Neil Woods, Drug Wars: The terrifying inside story of Britain’s drug trade

“The idea that cannabis, heroin, amphetamines, etc. are completely different chemicals, and might require completely different laws, is one of the great what-might-have-beens of the War on Drugs. Lumping them all together was itself an encroachment of American-style drug policy.”
― Neil Woods, Drug Wars: The terrifying inside story of Britain’s drug trade

“For the police of the 1960s, drugs were considered deeply uninteresting. Chasing drugs simply wasn’t seen as ‘real police work’. Being a proper copper meant going out and catching burglars and robbers.”
― Neil Woods, Drug Wars: The terrifying inside story of Britain’s drug trade

“The story of the War on Drugs is a story of the law of unintended consequences.”
― Neil Woods, Drug Wars: The terrifying inside story of Britain’s drug trade