Neil Woods is an extraordinary person. He spent fourteen years living a double life, inhabiting the skin of a heroin and crack cocaine addict whist working as an undercover police officer. Now he’s the chairperson of LEAP UK, and a prominent campaigner for drug policy reform. Sensi Seeds interviewed him about cannabis legalisation and the war on drugs.
I first met Neil Woods at the Product Earth Expo in Birmingham, UK, in 2017, where he was promoting the UK branch of Law Enforcement Action Partnership (formerly Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) and his book, ‘Good Cop, Bad War’. Neil was in a booth next to the United Patients Alliance, where the vaporizers were in full effect. He didn’t even seem to notice this clandestine disregard for the law he had once sworn to uphold. Later, Neil gave a talk on the futility of the war on drugs and the damage it is causing, and cheerfully answered questions about how to spot undercover police in grow shops (they seem really friendly, ask a lot of questions and want to meet…