Welcome to the inquiry on the BBC World Service with me, Tanya Beckett, one question,

four expert witnesses and an answer.

It was at first a normal night in a high security prison in Scotland,

but then something started to happen on one of the cell landings,

an emergency started to unfold. First one prisoner collapsed, then another,

then another. Every few hours it happened again. In the course of one weekend, a total of six

prisoners were rushed to hospital. An investigation suggested that they had all taken the same

illegal drugs, substances that had been smuggled inside the building and passed around.

The drama came on top of nine drug deaths in the same Scottish prison earlier that year.

But this isn't a problem in just one country. Every justice system is facing the same

challenge. This week on the inquiry, we're asking, can we get drugs out of prisons?

Part one, the inmate turned prison worker.

My name is Stuart J. Cole, I'm an author and a drug specialist,

drug and alcohol worker in London. Stuart has worked extensively with prisoners who struggle

with addiction. He is himself a former addict, a problem he traces back to his childhood.

I was abandoned pretty much after birth, went into a nursery then from a children's home in England,

then sent to Jamaica to live with my grandmother and other members of the family. But

Jamaica became violent. I witnessed the death of a friend who was actually shot in the face during

a bungled rubbery and things started to spiral out of control from then.

After many years of abusing drugs and alcohols, Stuart found himself serving a prison sentence

on the island of St. Lucia. He hoped being inside would help him get clean, but he was wrong.

Indeed, the trading of drugs in prison was commonplace.

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