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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: I showed Harry the horror of heroin
News of the World
Sunday 20 Jan 2002 TODAY the News of the World can reveal for the first time exactly how wayward Prince Harry was terrified away from his secret cannabis and booze sessions. He was devastated and horror-struck as he sat in rehab and shared the hellish visions of heroin junkie Paul Smith who was taken to the brink of insanity by his habit. Paul was chosen because, like Harry, he started on cannabis and alcohol and was driven to drugs after he lost a loved one in a car crash. When Harry returned home, his aide Mark Dyer sent a letter on St James's Palace notepaper to thank the clinic for helping the prince and added: "It opened Harry's eyes." The most harrowing part of the visit came when Harry, just 16 at the time, sat in a straight-backed chair opposite reformed addict Paul and asked simply: "How did you end up like this, here?" The answer was his worst nightmare. As he discovered how Paul's cannabis smoking turned to mainlining heroin in burned-out cars and lift shafts, he said: "What's it like injecting heroin? What feeling do you get? It must be painful having to inject on a daily basis. And after being in the programme so long, do you still crave drugs? How hard is it to cope?" Paul, 34, told the News of the World this week: "He sat there like any 16-year-old in frayed, baggy cords and an open-necked shirt as I told him everything. We were facing each other and talked as if he'd just been admitted to the scheme. It was like a proper counselling session. "It's obvious that Harry may have sought cannabis and drink to help him deal with the agony of losing his mother. Powder "We bonded as I told him about my own loss. You could see his eyes fill up when I said that losing my girlfriend and son in a car crash had pushed me to drink and then to heroin. If I hadn't been smoking cannabis then I wouldn't have known where to get hold of heroin. "I told him that by the end I was without a home, living rough in these old cars and lift shafts as I searched for places to sleep. I turned to crime, robbing drug dealers of their cash and their stashes just so I could get hold of some powder. "In the end I became desperately ill and all the drug dealers I'd ripped off in the area wanted to kill me. Finally I was arrested and sent to prison. It was there I decided to change my life. That was a year ago. There was another long silence when I finished. Then I remember Harry finally said, 'This place isn't what I expected'. "I asked him, 'Well, what did you expect?' He answered, 'I thought it would be like a hospital ward'." The News of the World revealed last week that Harry, now 17, was sent to the Featherstone Lodge rehabilitation centre in Peckham, south London, after he admitted to his father Prince Charles that he frequently smoked cannabis. He also confessed to serious underage drinking at a pub called the Rattlebone Inn. After late-night lock-ins at the Rattlebone there would be parties afterwards in 'Club H', his den in the Highgrove cellars. The place has a well-stocked bar. A family friend said: "Prince Harry fell in with a bad lot at the Rattlebone. Early last year he was involved in an incident after a fight broke out over out-of-hours drinking and was barred from the inn for a while. Unfortunately he was soon welcomed back with open arms. "It was a chap called Guy Pelly who introduced Harry to cannabis in June last year. He encouraged Harry to experiment with the drug at a private party in Tetbury and, on one occasion, in the shed at the back of the Rattlebone Inn. It wasn't long before Pelly would take drugs into Highgrove so he could smoke at parties there." A regular at the Rattlebone Inn, 53-year-old David Bragg, said: "There have been some wild times with Harry here. He's been the worse for wear and pretty crazy."Charles, who is a patron of the Featherstone Lodge clinic run by the Phoenix House charity, believed that listening to junkies' horror stories for a day would put him off drugs. Ex-addict Paul, from Harlow, Essex, said: "I was told that Harry would be my 'Buddy' for the day - that's a term recovering drug addicts use to refer to each other." Harry's visit to the lodge last summer began just before midday. He stepped quickly inside and was initially met by Phoenix House director Bill Puddicombe. Ravine Paul added: "Harry then came over to shake my hand and one of his aides said, 'Harry, meet Paul, he'll be buddying you up today'. Harry said, 'Hi Paul, how are you?'" Paul and Harry spoke for about 45 minutes. Paul went on: "I was nervous at first but then I realised that it could help him in some way." Paul, who used to run his own steel-welding company in Harlow, lost his business, his 180,000 pounds house, his car and his friends as he descended into drugs. Hisgirlfriend, Marianne, 28, and his two year-old son Phillip died on holiday in Lanzarote in October 1995 when their car collided with another vehicle on a mountain pass and careered down a ravine. Paul would have been in the car too but he had stayed in Britain for an extra couple of days to finish off some work. "I was selected to be Harry's Drugs Buddy because our circumstances were tragically similar," Paul added. "When he asked about the cravings, I told him that the strength it had taken me to keep off drugs was huge." Harry was also shown around the centre and when he entered the art room he was confronted by nightmare images painted by recovering addicts. "Harry saw mine," continued Paul. "'That's very good', he said. "I'd painted a swarm of red maggots moving around on a red background. 'What are they doing?' Harry asked. "I said that was how I saw my heroin addiction, it represented the addiction rotting away my body and my mind. Harry said, 'That's so powerful.' And referring to my bereavement he said, 'I'm so sorry for your loss'." On a lighter note the pair went into the grounds and Harry spotted a net set up at the end of the garden. "Do you play football here?" asked Harry. "Yes," said Paul. "We have great games. Do you play at all?" "No," said Harry, "I prefer rugby." Paul told the News of the World this week: "He didn't have that much to say for himself. He came across a bit like a mini-Prince Charles. He'd react to what was said but I think that was because he was a little scared to be there. "Still, I'd like to think I stopped Harry destroying his life with drugs, like I did. "I told him it didn't matter where you came from, rich or poor, drugs destroy us all."
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