Crew’s team of Expert Witnesses provide reports and testimony on drug issues such as current street prices, trends, prevalence, methods of use, quantities and paraphernalia involved in substance use, cultivation and manufacture. Crew has provided this service since 1997.
Expert Witnesses at Crew consult firms about their needs, are evaluated by their peers and are required to learn and maintain knowledge of legal practice. Good, rapid report writing and clear testimony can alleviate some of the pressure of representing clients who may present in a chaotic way. Often the Crew team pick up on key aspects of a case that, if overlooked, could delay or impede the result.
Crew maintains a database of casework to ensure uniformity of reporting across the team. Our expert team have a vast knowledge of psychoactive drugs including, but not limited to; cannabis, cocaine, opiates, benzodiazepines and New Psychoactive Substances (NPS). We also have experts specialising in areas such as ‘poly drug’ use and long-term drug taking as well as problematic and recreational drug use.
Crew’s expertise is well established in Scottish courts. Crew can be relied upon for up-to-date expertise and credibility, much of it gained through our outreach work that maintains close connections to people who take drugs, as well as through our drug counselling service. Crew has access to local and national information on the price of drugs and regularly carries out surveys of people who take a variety of drugs.
Crew’s Expert Witnesses have extensive experience of engagement with other experts and professionals in the fields of criminal justice, health and social services. Crew provides UK wide services with links to agencies and organisations across the UK and Europe.
Crew is a member of the Law Society of Scotland.
Please contact a defence solicitor and ask about Legal Aid. You can ask your solicitor to instruct Crew to prepare a court report on your behalf.
Typical quote
We expect the work to take a minimum of 5 hours, so we would ask for you to arrange sanction in place for £245 before proceeding.
Please note that this is an estimate and is dependent on the number of productions made available for review and the complexity of the case.
To request a quotation
Meet our Experts
John is the Senior Associate with Crew and has worked with people who take drugs, in both a professional and voluntary capacity, for the past 20 years. He has set up several projects and initiatives, developed early intervention strategies with people who take heroin, established drugs information and recovery support services, and is considered an authority on substance use and recovery from addiction.
John has over 15 years’ experience in providing expert reports and testimony in the Scottish courts.
He provides training and information around harm reduction approaches, emerging trends in new psychoactive substances and recovery community development practices to a variety of key professionals such as:
- police officers, prison officers and medical personnel;
- social service personnel and youth workers in a variety of local authorities;
- national and international conferences and think tanks;
- drugs workers and
- policy makers and governmental drugs information providers.
Working with people who use drugs, John has supported people to access treatment and rehabilitation or to stabilise their drug use. He is familiar with the sorts of quantities and the variety of substances that people are likely to use for the purposes of intoxication and keeps up to date with current street prices of various illicit substances. John is an accredited Recovery Coach and currently works with people who are attempting to recover from addiction to legal and illegal substances.
Gael has been working as a trainer and outreach worker with Crew since May 2011. Prior to this, for 8 years, she worked as a Development Worker and National Training Officer with Fast Forward, a national health promoting agency working mainly in the field of substance use education. As Development Worker at Fast Forward, Gael worked with young people, many of whom were taking substances. She delivered drug education, from a harm reduction perspective, and developed resources. As National Training Officer, Gael was responsible for designing and delivering training on all substances including alcohol, cannabis, ecstasy, cocaine, heroin and New Psychoactive Substances (NPS). She has delivered training in drug and alcohol issues and information to professionals from a variety of fields.
Gael was employed by the Edinburgh Drug and Alcohol Partnership as a Substance Misuse Development Worker within the Children and Families department. This role included review and monitoring of current drug trends and planning training for professionals to increase their skills in supporting people who use illicit substances. In addition, she was responsible for the planning and development of support services for children, young people and families affected by problematic drug use which included working in collaboration with people in treatment and recovery.
Gael worked for Cyrenians, managing the Visitors’ Centre at HMP Addiewell. Cyrenians support the families of prisoners, by giving support, advice and information, to mitigate the effects of imprisonment on children and families. Many of the families and their convicted relatives experience issues with substance use. Gael has also been involved in Crew’s outreach work providing crisis intervention and welfare services at events and festivals, which informs her about current trends, street prices and patterns of use. Gael is employed by Community Justice Scotland as a Learning, Development and Innovation Lead.
For many years she worked in the mental health field with people who had a dependency to alcohol and other drugs. This, coupled with her work with young people who were taking substances, has given her in-depth knowledge about new trends, patterns of drug use, dual diagnosis and other related issues.
Alexander Johnstone is a qualified academic with a Master of Science degree in Alcohol & Drug Studies gained in 2007. His academic research has previously been published evidencing his particular expertise within the areas of substitute drug maintenance with drug users. From 2006-2008 he worked as an Associate Lecturer in Paisley University. From 2008-2014 he worked as an academic, within the Drug & Alcohol Research Team, as an Associate Lecturer within the University of the West of Scotland (UWS). Alex delivered lectures to a variety of key professionals such as: Addiction, Health & Social Care Workers, Social Workers, Police & Prison Staff and Mental Health Nurses.
Alex mentored work placements with post graduate masters students within Criminal Justice Services. He previously worked in the Scottish Prison Service within the role of Addiction & Programmes Officer. During that time he was involved with all aspects of intelligence, enforcement, custody, treatment and education. He has been working since 2007 within the Criminal Justice Social Work setting. In 2010, he became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. In 2012 he was on the SQA (Scottish Qualification Awards) design team for co-writing the PDA in Brief Interventions for Substance Misuse and subsequently became an SQA External Verifier. In 2013 Alex fulfilled the requirements for study at PhD level and studied and completed the PhD. Research & Design modules. Alex is qualified to teach Drugs, Addiction and Social Policy at Universities/Further education colleges in Scotland. He has given several guest lectures to differing academic audiences. His latest was in 2026.
In 2016 he gained his Certificate in the Management of Drug Misuse Part 1 of the Royal College of General Practitioners. He has also taught Health & Social Care and Substance Misuse within further education centres 2017-2019. In 2024, Alex commenced his post graduate research with the doctoral college at UWS exploring drug expert witness discourse working under the Misuse of Drug Act 1971. He has 30 years substantive criminal justice experience in working with drug users and 11 years providing expert reports and testimony in the Scottish Courts. Unlike many academics, Alex, consistently works on a daily basis, with many drug-dependent individuals. In 2013, he joined the Crew expert witness team.
