Killing of Amy Rose tip of drugs tragedy iceberg

This is my latest Scotsman column, published in today's paper (27th May 2025).

An appallingly high number of people die in Scotland due to taking drugs, but the total death toll resulting from the trade in illegal substances is even higher.

The death of a young woman, Amy Rose Wilson, caught my attention last week. Three men were convicted of her killing after the deliberate ramming of her car during a high-speed chase. After initially being charged with murder, the three men were eventually convicted of culpable homicide for causing the crash which also injured her boyfriend.

But behind the headlines of this tragedy lay a familiar story, common in so many disasters in Scotland: Illegal drugs. It transpires that Amy and her boyfriend were being pursued because of an alleged drug deal gone wrong.

And this made me think about all the death and destruction caused by drugs that we do not count and sometimes cannot know.

Like all street police officers in the 70s, I saw first hand the layers of harm caused by the first wave of heroin. It wasn’t just the fatal overdoses, there were also a greater number of near misses that left the user damaged and still struggling with a vicious addiction that would, sooner or later, claim their lives.

Then there were the secondary victims of drug misuse – the children that lost their parents or had to be removed from their homes for their own safety. Or the parents and wider families of drug users who desperately struggled to rescue their loved one from an addiction more powerful than any family bond.

And then there were the victims of the plague of thefts and housebreakings. These were recorded as acquisitive crimes, but they were really attacks of the most personal kind, leaving many victims feeling violated, insecure and frightened to return home at night for fear of what they might find.

They were all the costs of drug misuse that were never truly calculated.

Later, as I rose to a senior rank in the police service, I saw just how far the tentacles of drug misuse reached. Violence is often associated with alcohol but drugs also play a role.

The death of Amy Rose Wilson is an obvious example but there are many others not so obvious. Gang-related violence is often about territory and these turf wars are usually centred on drugs, as are the ‘County Lines’ gangs that corrupt so many of our vulnerable young people, drawing them into a twilight world of crime.

Then there are the mental health consequences of drug misuse – the psychosis and self-destruction that often follows.

Scotland’s drug death rates are appalling but they are the tip of the iceberg. Amy Rose Wilson’s death will not be recorded as drug-related but like many others it should be.

So how do we reduce such harm ? One thing which we know for sure is that our present approach is not working. And yet we seem unable to think anew or take radical action.

Meanwhile the body count rises. Amy Rose Wilson will be far from the last.

Don’t be deceived, buying illegal drugs fuels death and disaster far beyond any official statistics.