Kevin Simmers is a former police sergeant in Hagerstown, Maryland. During his tenure as a narcotics officer, he aggressively pursued drug arrests—especially those related to heroin. “I believed my entire life that incarceration was the answer to this drug war,” Simmers says in a new documentary from The Atlantic.

Then his 18-year-old daughter, Brooke, became addicted to opioids.

In the short film, Simmers shares the personal tragedy that led to a radical transformation in his ideology. “I did everything wrong here,” he admits. “I now think the whole drug war is total bullshit.”

Read Jeremy Raff’s article, “A Narcotics Officer Ends His War on Drugs,” for more.