Drug rehab for pot!? What, is this the NBA?! UK prince smoked cannabis - palace January 13, 2002 Posted: 8:45 AM EST (1345 GMT) Prince Harry, 17, spent a day at a rehab clinic where he heard about the dangers of substance abuse LONDON, England (CNN) -- The youngest son of Prince Charles and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, has attended a drug rehabilitation clinic after he admitted to smoking cannabis. Bill Puddicombe, chief executive of Phoenix House UK, told CNN that Prince Harry, 17, made a short visit to the organisation's Featherstone Lodge centre in southeast London. Royal officials did not deny revelations by a tabloid newspaper on Sunday that Harry, third in line to the British throne, confessed to his father that he smoked mar1juana and drank heavily at a pub near Prince Charles's Highgrove country estate in western England last summer, when he was 16. In Britain, possession of cannabis, a class B controlled substance, is punishable by up to five years in prison, although the government has proposed making possession a non-arrestable offence. The legal age for buying alcohol is 18. Clive Goodman, of the News of the World, told CNN: "These were were no usual teenage high spirits. This was a young lad drinking under age ... taking pot, which is illegal." But a Buckingham Palace spokesman said the prince had never used stronger drugs and had not taken any substances since then. A spokesman for St James's Palace, Prince Charles's official residence, said: "This is a serious matter which was resolved within the family, and is now in the past and is now closed." The News of the World said Harry had experimented with mar1juana over a two-month period at Highgrove, in a rundown shed at a nearby pub and at private parties held by friends. Charles was often away on business and Harry's brother Prince William was away travelling on a "gap" year between leaving school and starting university, the newspaper said. Charles was alerted to his son's behaviour by a Highgrove staff member, who noticed a strong smell of mar1juana, the newspaper reported. Puddicombe said Harry's visit to the rehabilitation centre lasted a couple of hours. "He was friendly and relaxed, (Imagine that!)and the residents received him warmly," Puddicombe said. Prince Harry, right, pictured with his older brother, Prince William Charles is reported to have reacted straight away when he learned his son had tried cannabis, sending him to visit the rebab clinic to show him the dangers of drug abuse. "The way we interpreted it was it was a piece of good, responsible parenting by Prince Charles," Puddicombe said, noting that Queen Elizabeth's eldest son was a patron of the Phoenix House, and attended the opening of the refurbished Featherstone Lodge in 1998. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose eldest son was caught underage drinking, praised the reaction of Prince Charles. "I think the way that Prince Charles and the Royal Family have handled it is absolutely right and they have done it in a very responsible and, as you would expect, in a very sensitive way for their child," Blair told the BBC. Scandals involving drink and drugs have dogged the circle of friends of Prince Harry and his elder brother William, whose mother died in a car crash in 1997. Last year, Nicholas Knatchbull, one of Prince Charles's godchildren received treatment at a drug rehabilitation clinic. Tom Parker Bowles -- another godchild and son of Prince Charles's partner, Camilla Parker Bowles -- was exposed as a cocaine user two years ago. His cousin, Emma Parker Bowles, admitted in 2000 that she had been treated for drink and drug addiction. And when he was 14, Prince Charles himself was at the centre of an infamous underage drinking episode after he entered a pub on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland. He asked for a cherry brandy, saying later it was the first thing that came into his mind, but the incident attracted international attention.
How does using illegal substances equate to being a normal teenager. I have never smoked weed. A lot of people I know have never smoked weed. I don't care if there are no negative side effects. I don't care if it is guarantted to raise your IQ a hundred points. It is against the law. To me it is a sad state of affairs when criminals are those who are considered normal.
I dont think that he meant that you arent normal if you dont smoke weed, I think that he meant that they are making a big deal out of something that isnt a big deal. A lot of people smoke weed. It isnt like he is strung out on heroin and he is pawning the queens jewelery to maintain his habit. I think that it is a bit harsh to call everybody that smokes out a criminal.
Who really cares? I lost interest in celebrities private business (especially the Royal Family) ages ago. I couldn't give a damn.
If you use illegal substances, its a crime. Hence, people that use illegal substances are criminals. I don't consider it harsh...its apart of the definition of criminal. Is it against PC to call potheads criminals now?
robin hood. nelson mandela. martin luther. martin luther king, jr. just off the top of my HEAD. hmmmm....
While technically you're right, I just have a problem with any connotations of shame or disgrace associated with it. It may be an infraction of a written law, but not of a moral one in my book. Speeding is also illegal, but not everyone who drives fast is irresponsible, dangerous maniac on the road. Besides...weed is from the earth, man!
If you drive over the speed limit, you are a criminal. I guarantee you, everyone here as, at one time or another, gone over the speed limit, whether it was 1 or 20 miles per hour over. Most of you I would consider normal and criminal in the true sense of the word. I would also argue that this would not equal a "sad state of affairs". People are obviously arguing the measure against which someone who commits this certain crime should be judged. Smoking weed hurts no one, hardly yourself.
i guess your name hydra isnt a variation on 'hydro' anyway I just feel like insulting you hydra but i dont know what to say except that you are a "sad state of affairs" maybe he's not normal...its not normal to smoke pot then..fine but just as rocketman puts it in beautiful context lets be fair here in our use of words such as criminal as much as it may be... i personally think a$$holes that think and talk the way you talk are criminal and you remind me of some sort of extreme fundamentalist..i cant really think much except to say that you need to stay in saudia arabia or join the taliban and stick to the letter of the law like they do over there.. and when you do speed we 'll cut off your hands..mister perfect..
I never said that I was perfect. I only said that I have not smoked weed. Society seems to think smoking out is worse than speeding, since smoking weed is a jailable offense. Speeding will never get you more than a ticket. I don't think that him smoking pot is a sad state of affairs, rather that he is congratulated on it, it is dismissed, and he is not punished for breaking the law and getting caught (this part really bothers me). The fact that he is part of the royal family only makes it that much worse. He should be an example for the youth of Britain. Instead he is just taken down to the rehab clinic for a couple of hours in place of the maximum allowable five years imprisonment. Why even have laws if the most visible people are going to be let off scot free. Anyway, my only real point is that perhaps our standard of normal should be the hard-working, law abiding citizen instead of the little pot-heads of the world.
I think the point some are trying to make is that there are few, if any, people who NEVER violate the written law in one form or another (maybe you speed, maybe you've cracked a beer for your cousin who was 20 instead of 21, maybe you've turned in a receipt for a lunch that was really with your wife instead of a client, maybe you've written your name on a dollar bill, maybe you bought cigarettes before you were 17)). And smoking pot is not an offense that lands you in jail in most, if any, states. In most places its a minor offense (as is speeding etc) where you get a ticket. As such its not realistic to name those people 'criminals' unless you also call those guilty of other minor offenses (like speeding) 'criminals.' In fact, merely speeding is MUCH more dangerous to society as a whole than smoking pot, since you've a much larger probability of hurting someone else than you do by smoking pot. And there are plenty of 'hard-working' citizens in the US and elsewhere who smoke pot. The image you convey of all pot smokers is just incorrect.
ex post facto adj : affecting things past; "retroactive tax increase"; "an ex-post-facto law" [syn: retroactive] This is why he cannot be punished.
Sorry Hydra, I shouldn't have written that "normal teenager" part. I guess it just suprised me how big of a deal the poor kid has to go through...AND every other kid that gets caught smoking weed for that matter! I think its pretty comon for this to happen nowadays. My older brother got caught as a teen, I got caught as a teen and now, my little nephew just got caught smoking pot at school! Damn, he had to go to a detention school for 6 weeks! A little harsh for you kids nowadays, all I got was my mom freaking out for about 5 hours. Rehab for the little Prince though?! Oh, and if you haven;t smoked weed, AWESOME! Don't ruin it, stay clean cuz you ain't missing much, just don't turn into an alcoholoic
