A chap I knew as a laddie, 30-odd years ago, died last month. He was a nice boy.

Probably consequent upon a youthful experiment in his teens, he had a drug problem for about 25 years. His own family had to keep him at a distance, for their own protection. It was painful. The funeral was sad. He is added to the far-too-high statistics of illicit drug-related deaths in Edinburgh and Scotland.

I wrote this for The Leither before he died. I know the piece has struck a few chords in Leith. The the so-called War on Drugs is really a War on People.