Addicts stunned by his substance abuse
DRUG addicts were stunned when 17-year-old Prince Harry confessed to taking cocaine, ketamine, cannabis and Nepalese hashish temple balls, it was claimed yesterday.
He was sent to meet residents at a rehabilitation centre when Prince Charles discovered his son had been experimenting with cannabis and alcohol. But Harry apparently confessed to much more serious drugtaking when he was at Featherstone Lodge in south-east London, saying he had taken Class A cocaine and Class B ketamine, a tranquilliser.
Former resident Paul Smith claimed yesterday: ‘Harry was so open. He said he’d taken ketamine, cannabis and also cocaine. We were stunned. There had been reports of bad behaviour around that time, but this was so shocking. This was a prince. It was incredible.’
Harry is also said to have talked of taking temple balls, a potentially dangerous form of cannabis which has been cultivated in Nepal for hundreds of years.
Mr Smith, 54, shared his memories from 2002 after the Duke of Sussex wrote in his memoir about snorting cocaine and hallucinating on magic mushrooms, once believing that a bin was talking to him. Mr Smith told
The Sun: ‘He said when he was doing these things, he was out of control. It was brutally honest. I think he felt happy to speak around us.’
He recalled Harry had spent about an hour with him and two other addicts. He said: ‘I think Charles wanted him to be alone and talk to real addicts about how bad drugs are. He did not even have his security people in the room at the time... I told him that he did not want to end up in a place like this.’
In the book Spare, Harry said taking cocaine did not make him happy, but he had tried the drug and others to escape the harsh reality of his life. He suggested that taking psychedelic drugs had helped his mental health therapy. He also admitted smoking cannabis at Eton.