To Live Outside the Law

'Listen, Leaf,' Pritchard said, 'the hash is neither here nor there. You're in a lot more trouble than possession of a bit of dope. You've got big problems, man... big problems.'

He looked at me with something akin to sympathy. 'How did you get into such a fix?'

I'd been asking myself the same question.

Operation Julie in 1977 remains Britain's biggest ever drugs bust. The work of eleven police forces, it resulted in the break-up of one of the largest LSD co-operatives in the world, the arrest of 120 people and, according to reports, the seizure of six million trips' worth of LSD crystal, valued at GBP100 million. Overnight, the price of a tab went from GBP1 to GBP5.

This is the first insider account of how it felt to be caught up in - and by - Operation Julie.