 At Collins Morgan we offer friendly, regulated and ethical advice for anyone living in Scotland. Over the last six years we have helped thousands of Scottish residents become debt free. Our organisation always have your best interests at heart and our advisors are trained to help you in any situation with a range of solutions always available. If you're struggling with debts, act now and call one of our friendly advisors on 01412184450. Number one, James the boy, how are we mate? Good James, thanks very much. First and foremost mate, thanks for coming on the show. Thanks for having me on the show. You sent us a book, definitely maybe probably not. I think it's good to go a boy for Casimal, end up in jail and in death for four years fighting for your freedom. So how's things been? Things are good today, I'm a look after myself a lot better than the day I did back then. You sent us a book, I've read it over the last few days. Great book, really interesting, some mad stuff in it. So for the people watching we'll go right back to the start of your life. Where you grew up, I know you grew up in Casimal, but how did you end up getting involved in the stuff that you did? When I was a wee boy we moved to South Africa. My dad was a plumber in the 70s, we're pretty crap. Just the day financially for people, economically. We moved to South Africa and we were there for a few years and I remember life being great. Sunshine and glass bottles of Coca-Cola and all that before they were actually here. And I got up one morning and he was lying down on the bathroom floor. He died the next day, two weeks later Mama hid his back in Casimal again. That was your dad? That was my dad, aye. Brain hemorrhage? I said well hemorrhage aye. He was only 33, he was only a young guy, a fit young man you know. And I haven't spoke to people. Mama didn't ever want to talk about it. But having spoke to his brother as I got older, totally unexpected you know. He was a fit guy, never missed a day at his work. And I was always with him, that's my memory you know. When he was only working, he was working day in the homers and I was always there. And life then was all swimming pools outside. Although as I got older I realised South Africa wasn't a great place if you weren't there. White back then. But before we went over back I'm staying with my granny again in Casimal. And it had a big effect on me. What age were you when your dad died? Ten. So he's moved on there for a better life? Aye. His sister had been, my sister went a few years previous. And his two brothers went to New Zealand with their families. And my dad must have decided that I think for economic reasons as opposed to South Africa it'd been a better place than New Zealand. He took us there. We's sister. You know and like I say, my memories were great. Going to school there. Playing rugby and cricket. I had a red-ash part that... Calling back what's crept and bruised. Like tackles in the red-ash. As if he'd been shot in the backside. So when you came back it clearly must have affected you losing your dad. Especially if it's unexpected. Especially losing him in an instant where you're not expecting it so you can't really prepare yourself. So you can never really prepare yourself for a lost James. But when you're as young as that, moving back to Casimal, when did you start getting involved in the drugs scene? That didn't really happen until... So my life kind of progressed. I wasn't into the glue sniff or anything like that. And other boys that I was hanging about with were... And I was always scared that there was something about it that didn't... I was never really into. I had my first drink when I was about 15. And it ended up a mess. When I'm 16 I start hanging about with the boys in the street. And I'm drinking beer and getting arrested. And I'm dabbling in acid and stuff like that. And then in 1980, probably 1982, me and my pal, me and two boys, but one who was my pal, a closer pal, we ended up trying to smack for the first time. Well it was the first time for me, as it transpires it wasn't his first time. And although I was working I was an apprentice plumber. I was using smack for about four months. Snorting it. Maybe there was smoking smack at the time. I was snorting it. What was the effects of snorting it? Pretty much the same as with the rush, as if you were injecting it or smoking it, you know what I mean? But if you snort smack you can overdose on it as well, if you take too much of it. I've never learned anybody to... I would see if you speak to anybody for 80s. You're a post-lantean. So if you speak to anybody for 80s, that was the progression, you know what I mean? It was, nobody was smoking heroin at the time. People snorted it up. See I thought it was all just needles and smoke. You don't have to choose to do that again. No, snorting was the thing. And at the time I was... I'm glad there was no smoking at the time, because I would maybe I'd get mad into it, you know what I mean? But it came the time when, again on to me, he'd already had his first hit. And moving around in my mind, there was me having another boy and it came to my turn and I just thought, I can't do that one. And I didnae. And I just got back to drinking, causing trouble and that sort of stuff. The drinking get worse the police came into my life. And then when I was 19 I made my first geographical change and ran away to Jersey. And I had two years in Jersey that were alright, you know what I mean? But it was just drinking me, basically. Do you have contacts in Jersey? One of my pals had cousins that stayed in Jersey. And we went there. But we went to Jersey half of Glasgow was in Jersey because they were running away for the same stuff. Half of Liverpool was in Jersey and there was quite a lot of Dublin in Jersey as well. It was alright but I kind of missed my ma. And by this point, every time I get drunk I think about my dad who's died when I was a wee boy as well. And I was a greeter, I cried all the time when I was drunk for my ma or for my dad. Sensitive. I really, really touched you. That's not a bad thing. I really touched you. I know what you speak about, you've been to go a few times. What made you go in there for the first time? I was part of the late 80s, 90s ecstasy generation. Taking pills and going out clubbing and going to your aves. And it was all great. And by this point, I'm selling drugs and getting involved in all sorts of stuff like that. But 1993, they poked the flats down where I grew up and they gave everybody 25 hundred quid or something like that. And my brother was, he's like, I'm going to go over, I'm going for the rave scene and all that. And we did. So I tagged along with him and his wife, my sister-in-law. And we went to go and had four weeks partying in the jungle. And it was great. It was magic. And the following year we went back and done, I went back and done pretty much the same. So I had to go a thing. And I'd been back and forward to go a few times before I actually got arrested. And that was just to start it for you, getting involved. Kind of a way for it all. Kind of a way for maybe the pain and the misery here then. Getting all the other things. There's a way to escape for you to be all there. And get involved in the drugs. Yeah, they are there. And nobody does know you, you know what I mean? Until, and for me, even through the, the kind of 1993, 1994, 1995, because I was, I went three years in a row. I was still drinking, still getting into fights. Not until people were like, what's happening there? You know what I mean? We're all here. It was all peace and love stuff. But kind of drugs we taking in India? When I first went to India, I was just, we were taking ease. We were taking on the pills. But we were out every night. And if it wasn't every night, it was every other night. Because there was, Goat and ants was massive, you know, through the kind of late 80s, 90s. So there was big jungle rays. We see the full moon parties that you see in Thailand. They go on all the time, but they don't anywhere. But so we were at them, you know, and it was just dancing and dancing myself skinny, basically, man. And it was, it was great. I loved it all. It was an experience. It was all experienced and it was all good times for me. But obviously the tables would have turned and fell off in it. You must have shit yourself when, was it when you get caught with a polis? Was it two and a half kilo? A hash? 2.75 kilo. A hash, aye. That order is a 10 stretch, innit? It's 10 years. 10 year for that order, aye. Up to a thousand gram, you get seven year. A thousand gram, up to a million gram, it's 10 years. So it doesn't matter whether it's one kilo or a thousand kilo. It's 10 years, you get. So how did that story begin, then, when you were about to collect a hash? Were you selling it or were you just... I was, I was selling stuff and I was sending me bits back and I was people who couldn't get it. I was going and getting them basically. So I got asked to go and get it, but... I went and... I believe that I'd been gone and seen for long enough who had been introduced to him by another guy who had known for years. And at the time I was going between a Nigerian guy and an Indian guy and I was talking about the Nigerian guy, I was now 100% sure of it. And I backed the Indian guy in the race and the guy who gave me the ball was in the end. And that was for two and a half kilo, over two and a half kilo. So it was the experience then, when you got to jail. Was that a setup? Oh absolutely, aye. At the time I thought he'd just stuck me in because it was obvious that... What happened was I'd went to his house, I'd go to the bag, I'd go... 2.75 kilo in the bag. I thought it was three kilo. It turned out he'd took a bar out for himself and got me away anyway, right? So I jumped into a taxi but I got a feeling, I ain't you get a feeling? Got a feeling. I got a feeling and again the taxi and we drove away from his house and we drove for five minutes and I saw a Polish Jeep coming out at my back and I started to get a wee knot in my stomach and I thought I don't like looking at it and he just drove by me and I thought I'd get away by me and the next thing I saw it was only like a busy joe carriage when it was about one o'clock on a Saturday afternoon but it was these speed bumps to slow traffic down outside of school and I saw what I thought was a drunk Indian crossing the road and I'm thinking if a road stupid you'll get on there and he just stopped in front of the motor, the taxi and the taxi stopped my half a dozen Indians swarmed the motor dragged me out the front threw me in the back took the driver out one of the Polis got in the front and just drove away and that was it, you know, I didn't have any crime scene, there was no question on the spot, there was nothing that was just in the back and away and I know now because I got the same feeling then as when I discovered my brother had been killed but I was in shock everyone went into this big long tunnel and the colours are changed and I thought fuck man, I'm in trouble here What was the procedure then when you went to the cop shop? The procedure was you would think there would be a procedure but there wasn't any really one because because as it transpired I bought the drugs after Polis so we got to the Polis station and they put me into this office at first and they're all looking and they're all laughing and they were all talking the language there was Konkini and Goa so they were all talking this language I knew nothing about and laughing at me and saying 10 years and all that sort of stuff and something happened in me I don't know what it was but I thought right, this is it, you're in trouble nothing you can do about it they took me and threw me in a dungeon in the dungeon there were two other characters in the dungeon there wasn't any formal charging or anything like that it was just pretty much I didn't know what was happening I mean I didn't I was in the community you're being charged with this threw me in the dungeon took me back out and then later on that night they took me away where I stayed to search my plot did the fingerprint you're there take photos? at one point in the thing where the fingerprinted me and everything was done it was all done fingerprint and they took about 15 copies of this so 15 sets of my fingerprints I tell a wee story in the book about the 40s they kept coming and taking me I was in the dungeon for a week on a police remand they kept coming and getting me and taking me out so one day they could say we're going for get your photos took so I was like fine so there was a chalkboard and they had my name and my number on the chalkboard and I'm looking for the camera and there's no camera and they were like come on and they took me out the police station into the wee town called Panjim and we went into your photo click shop and in this shop where people were getting passport photos and I'm sitting there and I had a beard by this point man and I looked as if I'd been fired out of gun and I'm thinking I wonder what everybody thinks I've done because I read in the book as well when you were going to court they don't take you in that it's not like here in the security corps vans they took you in the bus public transport is that right James I get brought back if you court one time so it was all met alright so see when you were on the police remand the police arrested you and I was on the police remand they get charged in the court I get arrested in May right I get charged with the actual offence in November so all that time I was on a remand every two weeks but the police were still in charge of me although I was in the jail by this point so when I was going up from my remand it was the police that came and they put you in a jeep and they would take you in by yourself or a wee glass of fresh lime soda and I looked forward to it you know what I mean yes I'm going out to the police because they'd never ask me you know when you had a smile on yourself and my nerves make me smile too and they were like I think it's funny I think it's funny this is the reaction so once I get once I get charged officially I'd been moved to another a bigger jail and if there was 10 years or 20 he's gone he's on the bus so you can imagine that there's 20 prisoners on a bus and every prisoner's got two guards you know so the bus was like that and it was roasting and sweat strapped in half here but a couple of times I got took to court myself so they don't put the jail bus on for you so you get down and you get a bus into the wee tune and a bus from one tune to the other tune middle of the court is and then one time they actually hitchhiked back man and we were in the back of this big thing it was called a Tata truck Tata made big lorries there and the guy stopped so he's too too poor policed I look back now I mean they're there to get the finger out I think they might even have been pocketing the two quid or whatever it was for the bus fare you know so we're up on this big truck man and I'm sitting and I'm in the middle two polices there and the drivers there and he's talking really taping me and I can hear drugs getting mentioned and stuff like that and that experience there was a catalyst for me because I had prostate trouble on that when I was in the jail I had some health stuff going on food wasn't very clean, the water wasn't very clean were you honked after it when you were took to court? I was only honked once in a year do you ever try and escape? flip flops might trip me up James that was the thing but you know there was, escape was a possibility if I'd accepted I'd accepted this is your lot my lawyer says to me look you're not going to get found guilty you might be here a year, you might be here two years but you'll definitely be acquitted at the end of your trial so I didn't have any desire to run away because I'm thinking are we white Scottish guy you know where am I going to go? so when you were in there did you know trying to bribe them or did they not ask for money to get out? no but they took a bribe to bring me in a phone or they took a bribe to bring me in you know I was stoned every day I was in the jail and the guards were bringing stuff out I wonder either I try and fucking escape did anybody speak English? was there an understanding between you and the screws some of the screws weren't the English wasn't very good because these guys were poor you know and the jails were poor they were probably on 60 or 70 quid a month wages some of them didn't have great English they could say your name and say it and they repeated your name and repeated your name something about my name that they liked saying because when you get put in a cell as well there was 25, 25 in a cell the first cell I went in there was 25 people so I walked in and I'm petrified you know I mean I've got two blankets and a pillow and a wee towel and a metal metal plate for a tray and a metal cup and this guy came straight up to me and says told me his name shook my hand and his English was pretty good I told him who I was and he says it's okay we know who you are we've been waiting on you coming because I'd been in the papers for the week previous he showed me my space on the flare and he says to me don't worry as the cell empties you'll move around you'll get into a better space so I was in a wee corner underneath a drip because it was the monsoon that started when I got arrested and the roof was leaking because it was really warm everybody was good to me I mean I can't even say there was a neighbourhood nothing harmed lot people getting stabbed I know other people might laugh but they've got guns and knives in the wee jail there was a couple of fights I moved to the bigger jail one of the guys who got moved in my back who had started after though he was alright I could end up pals with somebody for the Bombay mafia I got a guy called Ashback Bengary horrible, horrible horrible individual the guy was just, he was a murderer and he was an extortionist and he just prayed on people you know I mean he prayed on anybody he's bag outside was extortion so if there was coconut sellers selling coconuts for to Bob he would want a shell in it so that's the kind of guy he was and he had money but in there he tried to make friends with the foreigners to see what he could get after and I saw him manipulating at a Greek pal a Greek boy came in a few weeks after me and he was petrified he'd been going back and forward to go for 30 years he'd been doing business as he called it sending stuff back and he couldn't believe it somebody had actually shopped him to the police and he'd been arrested and he would have done anything to get out and he had a nice looking girlfriend who used to come up and this Ashback used to say I like your girlfriend and all that and then I used to see the tour and walk around the exercise yard together and I called this guy Mr Beng because he was a spent image of Mr Beng and he had his trusers up to the air and as he lost my weight his trusers went further up and he had all the actions of Mr Beng but he was getting parallel with this Ashback guy my Greek pal and I could see him getting frustrated and I could see just the pure anxiety in his face and then one day I asked him what was happening with you and him and it turned out that this Ashback he had his crew outside had met with this Greek boy's girlfriend outside and she'd gave them money and we used to go to an international phone once a week they would like you to go to your phone and you get 20 minutes using the phone and that's when if you were going to escape that was the time to escape it was too old guys would take you and they'd flip flops on as well and if you had the means to escape that was the time to do it so unknown to me he'd got his girlfriend to get his guns money and then they had helped him escape saying when's it going to happen he would tell her Monday when you go to the phone and he was just getting frustrated and then he was saying things like they might hurt your girlfriend because now they know where she stays and it was just pure shite it just manipulated this guy's fear and I ended up having to say gonna stop that with him gonna leave it out he says he felt that battering him and I said well I'll leave your room again you know it's need a hammer we'll go to another room you can get somebody else in and what I watched him doing was just like that transferred the stuff the Greek guy an Italian boy that was in me as man and it was horrible to watch because by this point we're in a room probably about this size but then there was nine years in it so you're loving me people you're lying in the flare and you're sleeping beside guys and you see everything it was sweltering man because I was there during the monsoon as well so sometimes there would be power cuts and there was a fan above the room because it was all the new key news that you get the jail in would they try to help you here the British Embassy all there so it was a big boner contention for me James that I met the British console service and there were three local people who were the consular service are there and as the case went on it turned out that there had been a big web of conspiracy going back 10 years corruption stuff going back 10 years and I try to my case was that these people here are all related to these people there so they might be working for the consular service but they've got pals in the police because it's a wee place it wasn't a big place and I think if people are all called Fernandez or Gonzales or Rodriguez there's a good chance somewhere doing the line that one of them is going to be related to somebody else with the same name so my thing was after a goat bail I was writing to the Prime Minister people writing that I got a Facebook group going and made 13,000 people in it and and I'm saying my case isn't a British foreigner who's been arrested on a drug charge my case is all the police who've arrested me have been arrested and something's not right here so how did they get, or get the jail if you were the one trying to buy it what happened was I'd been inside for about 10 months and you've smiled at this as well right so there's railies there worked with the police in Goa so there was an Israeli guy and his name was Atala he had a girlfriend, a Swedish girlfriend called Lucky Farmhouse you can google any of this James like this it's all there for anybody well she was Lucky Farmhouse with her name right so as it turns out she wasn't very nice because she was videoing this guy was working with the police who had protection after Home Minister's son right so that's how deep this Weber shit went you know her in the Italian her in the Israeli guy Atala fell out she then produced all this stuff that she'd been recording and the house she'd been recording all these top police coming they're talking about I'm gonna give you 100 kilo of this and I'm gonna give you 10,000 pills and I'm gonna give you all this gear and smacking and my name too fell out hell half no fury she loaded it up on YouTube all it took doing that for YouTube she put it back up on YouTube and then I was in for about 10 months and it started to make the papers out there and I'm like fucking brilliant man all these guys who arrested me are all corrupt or corrupt I knew they were corrupt you know I mean I just that's when it all fell into place for me I'm thinking I was just one of the patsies as well you know I mean I did at the time I still thought the boy had bought the stuff off he stuck me in and I still 10 months doing the line that I realised that it's much deeper than this you know and I'm just a wee thing and a thing that they've been doing but could you still get a 10 stretch because you tried to buy it as well well what actually happened was after 11 months I got bail you took a passport and that half you had everything they'd been quite fly when I got arrested they took me back to my flat and when they were there they kind of robbed everything that was in the flat they took my passport and said I had it in my pocket so that then became a bit of evidence so my passport was my case right for the very start so I didn't have a passport right for when they got arrested in May and I was 70 sign on in the police station every week at first they cut me an actual curfew but I had to go to this right into their den so they've all been arrested I'm having to go into the same place it's other police it's there now but if they're all bent then they're all bent anyway you know what I mean it's just the way it was having to go in there every Monday and sign on was there people coming on visiting you were there any visitors? when I was inside my wee mark came out to visit me with my boy we get four visits and I'm smiling because they were good visits I'm a Celtic fan and my mum brought her 75 Celtic jerseys and the foul jails are running on a book day and that so that was great they were all asking me for a green t-shirt it's not a green t-shirt I said so after four they were only there for two weeks four visits we got and I was way up there I went back to the cell I knew I wasn't going to see them for I didn't know how long and there was a guy in Mario Fernandez who murdered his girlfriend which is common earlier rapists and murderers mixed freely women murderers and all that they mixed freely with everybody else this guy Mario was saying to me it's a problem James Baba and all and I'm like fuck my man my boy and I don't take tension I'll sort it out I'm like this will be good so he's away and he's come back and he says just get yourself a hospital appointment for Tuesday he's like going to see the doctor in the morning so I went and saw the doctor told him I had to go on with the prostate and they arranged the appointment for the Tuesday and I was able to tell my mother I was going to be at this hospital on the Tuesday so I'm back and back and they let us have a picnic in the garden and on that man and it was really nice so my last time I saw my man my boy wasn't there he was leaving me in a shite I mean it was them leaving me in this garden it was good for them it was better for me as well obviously so long did you keep an in there for 3 years 4 years in total I was a year in prison and then 3 years going through the trial so what was the outcome of the trial then after the 3 years with the case how was that were you not ashamed of yourself that they were going to take you back in it was a time at the one I was sigh because I was I was having to rely on people here supporting me but I was also dunking and diving during the 3 years too still so if you get caught you're life would well probably right back into the same thing again same scenario what were you doing when you were out far I was a lot of the time it was alright I spent on the beach hanging about with older guys I wouldn't have got English stories nor that I thought Maggie Thatcher was alright but I spent a lot of time I don't like to tell myself medication but I spent a lot of time self-medicating you've done a lot of reading do you know because I hear you speak a bit of Carthol a lot I did because that's the thing you know now I'm in recovery right and I know that spirituality is a big part of that and there is a place for spirituality as well absolutely I've made a petition to the court and asked for time to travel and they gave me 5 weeks and I went away up into the Himalayas man and it was Is that how you wrote your books some bits I started writing it when I was on the train and I started the introduction I started writing and I've still got this stuff in the house where I was writing um the pen in the jail you know what I mean and everybody wanted to know if they were in the book or not and that ash back was always looking at it happening because I could be right about him you know what I mean because um he did know he got murdered he did get murdered and you know I don't in the jail he got murdered in the jail in 2016 so no long ago no long ago because I I made a contrast and compare thing with two boys I was in one was a guy called Yuki Marita and he was a Japanese boy and he was so altruistic you know what I mean he was he would want to clean your play and he wanted to clean it and um a lovely lovely guy but he was mixed up you know and he said he was scrambled when I got out he then won his case and he got out and um he came down to see me in the brief place I was staying and um I was able to lend him some money and it wasn't much money you know and he went away and then he phoned me I wanted to give you the money back so he came down to see me and he was riddled with smack and I looked after him for a few days and managed to get him a wee bit better and um and he told me I'm going away um I'll see you when I come back and um so he'd been released in the June 2010 and in November 2010 he got caught in Bali with six kilo and get 18 near I was like what the fuck happened there you know what I mean you get found not guilty and then he still thought it was a good idea and he went for um in dirty Bali and he was gone to Thailand and then Australia and I don't know if his final destination was Australia but flying through Bali and then Thailand with six kilo and then Australia was he trying to make money to get Australia? because that's where the big bucks were for what he had because it's expensive for Australia because they need to get it there and I googled him somebody asked me about him and so he had 18 years in Bali and one of my pals, a boy from Ireland was in Bali and he went to visit him and took him fags and gave him money and I googled him probably about 18 months ago and he went and he hung himself man and I found out on a google search that my mate had hung himself in Bali and it broke my heart but at the same time I found out this other bastard had been murdered in the jail and I thought it worked well don't be mafia we were out for a year, three year on bail, was it it took three years for it to go to court? no, appeared in court every two weeks, every four weeks appeared in court a hundred times during that period you would go to court the prosecutor wasn't there they would give you another date you would go back up the judge wasn't there, they would give you another date the witness had me turned up see here the witness doesn't turn up at court they sent for him didn't they earlier the witness didn't turn up three times in a row I had to be at the court for two months or I'd been up and down without mere dates and sometimes my legal team didn't bother turning up as well and when I would phone them and say will I come to court on or come definitely coming, you would get there and the court was known and part of the time it was a two year journey to get to court on a two year journey back that warned me a bit tired you no no, we were going to get hammered that was always the thing was there going to be an outcome, did you know you were only getting a big sentence did you worry about it my lawyer had always said to me don't worry you'll be acquitted at the end of the trial but how are you going to get acquitted how is the lack of evidence corruption, what is it as it turns out when they make the charge sheet right so this is the way it all works the lawyer the police the judge, the lawyer the lawyer Rodriguez Fernandez or whatever right there's a relationship between them all my lawyer first got brought to me by the police who arrested me he says to me don't worry you'll be in here for 12 months, 18 months or something like that but you'll get out this police was always saying to me don't worry I'm going to make a weak case against you so it's all about how do you know how do you know, so you obviously had an in so I had a good lawyer right and what this lawyer says to me was don't worry we haven't lost a foreigner yet and I says to him I don't want you to be sitting here next year and saying don't worry we've only lost one foreigner so far you know what I mean because that doesn't matter what he tells you you're always thinking and see here the instructor lawyer earlier you paid the money and trying to get at the good side and this guy and there was an Israeli guy just before me who had my lawyer sacked him brought a hotshot down for a bomb and paid a lot of money for him and got 10 year because the hotshot was coming out of state and it's like bringing the lawyer up to England to his hotshot and they had to try and deal with something in the high court up here you know what I mean, Derek Og and Donald Trinley have got that covered up here so you knew you weren't going to get any 10 year so when did you eventually get a not guilty error eventually they call it a quitted error there I went to court on the 23rd 23rd of April 2013 and there was a couple of people there we went in the morning they told us to come back early afternoon we went back in the afternoon they told us to come back at 5 o'clock and we went back at 5 o'clock the court was empty and this court clerk came out and he says to me come into the judge's chambers and the judge was sitting there and he was reading the papers and there was one of my lawyers understudies was there and the prosecutor was there and I'm starting and I'm feeling that they knew I mean I was absolutely shaking from my toes right up man because even though I was 100% sure I was going to be found not guilty there's still a bit of uncertainty and he said something and she stood up shook my horn and said well done and that was just a big anti-climax to the full thing because I wanted my day in court I wanted to be told to walk out the door of the court and he just gave me a nod like that there you go, did you get your passport back that day? no I didn't get my passport I had to actually get a there was a three month appeal period basically so the three month appeal period was to allow the prosecution to decide whether they were going to appeal my case so I eventually got a passport the July so I'd been acquitted in April and I eventually got my passport near the end of July did you come home straight away? as soon as I got there and there was just a one you know the passport you allowed it's a white one and you've only allowed one journey with how bad were you on the drugs then before you came home? I was using quite a lot of aluminium you buy it with the chemist that because they're nerves because I know your brother get murdered as well when? 2004 when you were travelling were you travelling at the time? no I was a drug worker the social work department when Martin was killed I'd got after drinking 2001 went back to college done a bit of counselling and then I got a good job in residential social work with children and families and I changed my life about you know I mean I had to stop drinking I had to stop taking drugs and life was alright 2004 he was murdered I stayed in social work Martin was murdered in June I stayed in social work until the next April and then I left to go back to the building trade and then when I was back in the building trade I started snorting the gear again and all that stuff and my life just fell apart and that's I ended up travelling and went back to India so that's obviously affected you as well massive thing but you know I can I wore a victims badge because of my dad you know it did affect me everybody's got a back story and a bit of my back story to that is what we spoke about and my dad dying was a big part of that but when my brother died I let that define me you know I mean I let my brother then put me in a boat it gives you an excuse to hit it hard leave your job stop caring about yourself and all the people who cared about you pushing them away and that's exactly what I done James but everything you've done then and everything that's affected you has led us to where you're the now your book clean again a year cleaner again so congratulations for that mate it takes a lot of bottle to create change and make changes but you've made them before and you've got to understand how good it is you feel when you're at it because I've relapsed in numerous occasions and I preach when I'm at it and I say it's the way forward and it is because for me it is because when you're at it, they feel good life is good, your energy is focused on yourself and then in good things and it's easy to rip the whole ceiling down again so when you eventually come back for India, you started your book in India and how it is and then you come back when did you get yourself half everything when you came back so when I came back I was you were all the news on that James, weren't you when I came back I had the evening times a guy called David Lees could cover my story and he was really fair with it BBC Scotland done a couple of e-hangs as well and they were kind of they were fair with it as well you know because they didn't know any of the backstory they just knew that I was telling them I thought it would be 100% honest when I was in India because you've still got a case pending because I've still got a case pending you know but I wasn't a guilty I was guilty of something you're trying to buy two and a half kilos so you're guilty of the story and I've never denied that but instead of them charging me we've been in this taxi and having bought this stuff they then say that I was gone to a bus stop gone to meet a guy and I couldn't make any sense of that I couldn't make any sense because the people who were arresting me were the people who had bought the stuff after you through a third party and they were just taking themselves out of the equation but also the fact that they'd made up this big story and me being in a place I'd never been in and witnesses trying to tell a big giant lie then it made their case pretty flimsy why would they lie anyway they caught you do you know what I mean see if there was any corruption with it would you have got a 10 a bigger sentence a bigger sentence than the year remand that you've done I think if I'd been found guilty I would have got a 10 but I was in with an Italian boy exact same story as mine his charge sheet was mine except for his name his age, different place exact same two Russian guys exact same anybody for you before the policy arresting me had been at it for 10 years and getting a sentence did they get money for no they were so any drugs that are seized they're the ones gave the drugs to dispose of you come on and these are the guys who's getting 100 pound a month wages so what they were doing was a poor Indian guy brings down 100 kilo for the mountains he's got somebody to meet the guy who's got to meet are working with the police they've no regard for anybody anyway so they just set him up the police arrest him with 100 kilo he then faces 10 years in the jail that he's going to get anyway because he's a poor Indian but they don't charge him with 100 kilo they charge him with 2 and steal 98 of them because the two's still going to get your 10 two's going to get my 10, they're going to have a guy who's been caught all of the papers with 2 kilo they've got another 98 to get to the local boys to sell, to get to the Israelis to sell or to sell to guys like me because that wasn't the first time I'd bought dope at them how much was it for a kilo a hash all that it's about 600 quid that's it? that's quite there, is it not? if you go up into the mountains you can get it for but the bottom's fell out they've got the world to go and reduce they've got the regulatory corruption all there because the wages are slim so they were just setting everybody up so obviously you've had a bit of a pull in there as well to get you out of that court case and to get you going home free what I had was a belief that because again when it comes down to the your argument part I've not got to prove it and they've got to prove it and the mental way it works so see the policeman in charge he tells the story, here's what happened the other 10 police are there they say, ah he's telling the truth and then they bring an independent guy to say he was there when the arrest happened now the independent guy wasn't there when the arrest happened because the arrest didn't actually happen the way they're saying it happened so when it comes to the court case he's been coached into the evidence he's got to give but the hot short lawyer who's done this a thousand times he knows the questions they ask him is there a category of drugs all there obviously hash used to be a C a class C here, I don't know how to move it to a B is there categories like an A, B, C they've got different categories I'm not too sure what they are but there's different like for powder stuff they wouldn't call it a class A powder stuff would get you the same kind of sentence but for for less you know, I mean it was B, I think I've got a Russian pal again he got caught with 200 grams of MDMA 10 grams of MDMA gets you 10 years so the charge time would be 20 180 grams of stuff happened so basically just cheering people up, putting something back then that boy got arrested before me in 2009 in his case hasn't he finished yet? he's still in the jail no he got bail and he sells books on the beach and he's turned himself into a bit of a guru but he doesn't even want to go back to Putin's Russia so he's seeing me come back, he's still dabbling with drugs then? nah he was a few years, was that your nerves or have you smoked up in a cell I don't know if it was my nerves obviously I wasn't comfortable in myself you know, I mean I was still sniffing stuff and I was taking tablets and I smoked up every day because I didn't think it affected me at all so what made you want to get out of it or what made you the change last year? I took somebody close to me to a CA meeting and I sat at the CA meeting because I went to the CA when I got out of the drink because Andrew McClaren spoke about you Andy took me to my first day two weeks ago Andy actually says I've got a pal James Don't ask this fucking hell he's just actually sent me his book and there's a great guy shout out to Andy boy he took me to my first day meeting so I mean I haven't done this circuit for everyone here which was great but a year ago I took somebody close to me to a meeting the guy chairing is the guy who's my sponsor today and I heard him talking and when I'd been in India and maybe Mestis saying there's a seat for you at the Saturday Night Fever with your name on it we used to have a laugh about it so I went to Saturday Night Fever he chaired and he spoke about the illness and he spoke about control and he spoke about choice and being powerless or controlling choice and I thought fuck that's me makes sense doesn't it? absolutely for me it just went another piece in the jigsaw felony place and the last who shared that night I was 12 steps down and I thought I could do that so for that day to this I followed the suggestions that you get in there I joined a group I got a sponsor I went through the program, I helped others I did all the stuff and the idea that smoking dope or having a line of coke would be a good idea left me you know I know it's only a daily thing but I'm doing all the right stuff you're not speaking at the schools today what's the night you speak in there? you're doing big things, you wrote your book when did you finish the book James? the book's actually turned into two in the second part I sent it to an editor because that was one of the things I wrote that and it went into your file and it lay there and I'd done nothing and if I met you I'd be saying I've wrote a book and you'd say how can I get it and I'm saying you can't really get it because I've done nothing absolutely so I've stopped drinking and then I've stopped taking prescribed medication and then I've stopped taking gear and I was hodding onto the puff it's only a bit of dope you make excuses for it, don't you? absolutely, you know you've had to get it every year for the last 30 years and there's something going on there and when I stopped smoking dope I started to see a high definition and I started to see that you've got a story there and some people you've wrote a book they actually did something with it and I'd done a crowdfund last year to get it edited properly and the support I got for that was amazing I got two and a half grand and by the time they took their wee bit there was 2300 quid so that allowed me to get it edited properly but when I sent it to the guys like you've got two books there turn that into two, you know what I mean so that's what we've done that's why I brought it out in December and how can people get their book James Howe people can get my book off my website which is JamesGyToner.co.uk or they can buy it off Amazon so people have been buying it I don't really care how people buy it but to get my story there's a thing and I'm really hoping that I can get the second one into Waterstones and W. Smith I spoke to Brad after he'd been on Brad's a great guy and Brad's the you can change and he's a mulling mile an hour so he messaged me and he's like I didn't know you had a book out and I was talking about it she's like here's what you should be doing so my marketing strategy is going to be different with the second one because it's all been a big learning curve for me everything's trying an error James you've got your first book out, you've done it you've got yourself clean, you're getting the second book out for anybody wanting to change what message would you give them if they were struggling themselves for me I'd say cocaine anonymous is the one if you're struggling, talk to somebody that's the start reach it, somebody will always be there if you think you've got a problem we drink our drugs and the problem being that once you start you can't stop and when you can't stop you can't stop I believe in the 12 steps I believe in the universe so the higher power thing for me was dead easy clearing all that stuff all the stuff about my dad all the stuff about my brother all the shit I'd done through my life trying to make the amends for that and actually all the stuff that I read about Buddha and Eckhart Tolle and all the spirituality stuff and you practice at the same time as understanding you've got an illness because a lot of people who suffer don't know what it is they suffer they think they drink too much or they think they take too much something just try to identify where you're going wrong a lot that's just a symptom and the way you do is a symptom for how you feel we're scared, we're too scared to admit we've got problems a lot of people are in denial and that's fine but you've just got to be honest with yourself and look at where you want to change and how you can improve your life people have got too much pride to admit they've got where it's only the wheat or the hash or the valium or the charlie or the brown or whatever it is if you're denied and it's destroying your life and you're waking up and you're no miserable you don't need to live there you can wake up and actually be happy I'm a positive guy, I have my moments I've had a house I've had my relapses but I get back home I make big things and you can wake up happy and it's odd not to use an individual if you want to change just educate yourself open up, set your power look up for a meeting and if you're embarrassed to go to a local meeting go to one further away then you don't need to say anything you can just listen and once you realise you're not alone and you understand that there's people there that's fucked up and you realise that the people who actually take the steps to improve their life are the strongest people that I've ever met because there's no living in fear that they're no good enough or they don't think they're good enough so if anybody takes those steps you've got to take your hat after them and guys let yourself come on and tell your story and write your book and change your life especially when you're in India you could have been on a smack or there and stuck in the fucking house but you've done it James I really appreciate that and thanks for the book thanks for having me I definitely and only best for the future for anybody getting involved it's actually a brilliant man's story phenomenal thanks a lot James Thanks very much email updates and how about the plan is going managing the day of the event they will support you the whole way through so for more information to make a booking pop down to their showroom at unit 2 foundry street atlas industrial estate in Glasgow their phone number is 01412373020 so pop along or else their social media pages are on Facebook amevents and also instagram friends.glasgo.