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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Prince Harry 'sent to drugs clinic'
BBC Online
Saturday 12 Jan 2002 Prince Harry was sent to a drugs rehabilitation clinic for a day after he admitted to smoking cannabis and drinking alcohol, it has been reported. Prince Charles took the decision after learning that the prince, who is now 17, had taken drugs at private parties held at his Highgrove home and drank alcohol at a local pub, according to the News of the World [NoW]. The BBC's royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell said the Palace had not denied the reports but had objected to the prince's use of cannabis being described as regular. A spokesman for St James's Palace said: "This is a serious matter which was resolved within the family, and is now in the past and closed." It is suggested that Prince Harry admitted to his father last year that he had experimented occasionally with cannabis over a two-month period, and that he had been drinking alcohol. It is stressed that the drug experimentation always took place at private parties and not at the prince's school Eton. As a result the Prince of Wales arranged for Harry to attend Featherstone Lodge Rehabilitation Centre in Peckham, south London, for a day. During the visit he met heroin addicts. The News of the World said the story had been pursued with the full co- operation and knowledge of Prince Charles. The paper's royal editor, Clive Goodman, told BBC News 24: "It is a matter very firmly in the public interest and is something we have been working on with St James's Palace all week. Sympathy "His father thought he would benefit from a short, sharp, shock at a rehabilitation centre. "Prince Charles had a conversation with his younger son, which every parent in Britain must dread having with their own children, where Harry confessed to taking cannabis and drinking heavily and wanting to do something about it. "There is tremendous sympathy for Charles. He has done a fantastic job putting his son back on the straight-and-narrow, as has his brother Prince William." The BBC's Nicholas Witchell said a statement from St James's Palace in response to the report did not go into details but did acknowledge the central allegation about the use of soft drugs and alcohol abuse. He said: "Prince Charles will have taken a firm line on this, as will the authorities at Eton. His family will be watching to make sure there is no resumption of this behaviour," he said. He added that the prince's reported confession followed concern within the Royal Family that both Prince Harry and Prince William had friends who had admitted to drug use. After-hours drinking Constitution advisor Lord St John of Fawsley told the BBC the issue was serious, but should not be blown out of proportion. He said the NoW should not have printed the story and should be ashamed. "Prince Harry was the member of the Royal Family who suffered the most from the death of his mother," he said. "The News of the World should have some concern for this boy and not expose him to this sort of publicity because there's not public interest in that whatsoever." The Mail on Sunday is also reporting that Prince Harry was at the centre of a police investigation into after-hours drinking at a pub near Highgrove. The inquiry began after the prince was involved in a mock fight during a late night pool playing session, the paper reported. It alleges that he verbally abused a French employee and was ordered to leave the premises.
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