Source: The News of The World

CHARLES WAS SHOCKED BY HOW OFTEN HARRY USED CANNABIS


Prince Harry "Potter" experimented with cannabis and took part in regular underage drinking sessions at a pub called the Rattlebone Inn.

Over a period of two months he used the drug on several occasions, smoking cannabis at Highgrove, at friends' private parties in the Gloucestershire area and in the pub's rundown outhouse. Harry also drank in late-night lock-ins at the Rattlebone, in nearby Sherston, with parties afterwards in the basement of his Highgrove home.

It was during one of these parties that he and a pal named Guy Pelly took the drug. Harry was careful to confine his use to the outside areas only.

The first hint that something was seriously wrong came when a senior member of staff noticed a strong smell of cannabis and alerted Prince Charles. When he discovered the extent of his son's involvement, he was deeply concerned.

A family friend explained: "Since Princess Diana died, there has been a family rule that when Prince Harry is home from school, his father is at
home at Highgrove. But last summer was different. Prince Harry was getting older, Prince Charles was often away on business in London and Prince William was on his gap year.

"So for the first time Prince Harry found himself occasionally at home alone at Highgrove and was encouraged to have friends round to keep him company. During a two-month period covering June and July 2001, Prince Harry fell in with a bad lot at the Rattlebone Inn. Guy Pelly, who has a drink-drive conviction and is a student at Cirencester University, was the worst influence.

Alert

"There are so many fights at the Rattlebone Inn. In fact, earlier last year Prince Harry was involved in an incident after a fight broke out over
out-of-hours drinking and was barred from the inn for a while. "But unfortunately he was soon welcomed back with open arms.
"It was 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
it at parties there. "Harry would never smoke it inside the house, though on one occasion he went outside for a joint. - "And though he'd only ever smoke at private parties or in front of close friends, it wasn't long either before a senior member of Highgrove staff alerted Prince Charles to what was going on when he wasn't there.
"Charles was very calm, he didn't confront Harry aggressively but sat him down and asked him to tell the truth. Harry immediately confirmed that in
the past two months he'd been smoking cannabis on several occasions, that he'd brought friends back to Highgrove parties and that he'd been drinking a lot.

"Charles then consulted with Prince William about the situation. Charles felt that the problem had to be dealt with. He's been a patron of many drug
charities over the years and although he knows that many people say there's no harm smoking cannabis, as a parent he felt he couldn't leave it at that.
"Through his experience as patron he's fully aware of how easy it is to become hooked on cannabis and how, if a person's character is susceptible,
it will often to lead to experimenting with harder, more serious drugs. "Although Charles didn't scream and shout at Harry, he did gently question
him, asking, OAre these really the right people to be hanging around with?
Are these really the right things for you to be doing at 16 in your position?' Harry was very mature about it and quickly realised the error of his ways."

The friend continued: "Despite this, Charles was so concerned that he decided swift action needed to be taken. About three years ago he'd opened a new centre for drug rehabilitation called Featherstone Lodge in Peckham.
It's part of a drug charity called Phoenix House. He's been a patron of it for many years. Charles asked William to suggest to Harry that perhaps he
should spend some time there to familiarise himself with the dangers of hard-drugs. It's not that Charles felt Harry needed treatment but he definitely need a shock."

"Back at home Harry, Charles and William talked and talked," the friend continued. "He has never done drugs since.

"Prince William has also talked to various trusted family friends who were told to keep an eye out for Harry. Prince Charles always makes sure he is
now home when Harry is back from school, so even if Harry goes out for the night, when he comes home, his father is there."

A senior aide to the Prince of Wales confirmed: "Although his friends smoked at parties at Highgrove, Harry was mindful only to smoke in private with close friends in the local area. He never smoked cannabis inside Highgrove but in the grounds. "But his friends, including Guy Pelly, did smoke there and that led to staff complaints which in turn led to the prince confronting his son. When the prince found out he was very calm and accepted that this is a normal part of teenage experimentation. But the level of cannabis use and the underage drinking that Harry had been taking part in during the period gave him cause for concern."

Refused

Another party guest was a man named James Mullholland. Both he and Pelly are frowned on by Charles and St James's Palace courtiers.

The aide continued: "Harry was asked to visit Phoenix House's Featherstone Lodge hard detox centre for heroin addicts in Peckham. The prince knew that Harry attending group therapy on the evils of drugs would educate him away from the fashionable assumption that cannabis use is OK and doesn't lead to harder, more serious drugs.

"For his 16-year-old son the Prince of Wales refused to accept that is the case. He wants Harry to learn from hard experience. These are hard heroin
addicts and consequences of their drug abuse shocked Harry into realising that what he was doing was not the right path to go down and that the people he was mixing with were not the right friends to have." Although Harry was accompanied by his friend and aide Mark Dyer, the youngster's police bodyguard waited outside during the sessions.

The senior aide added: "Prince Charles himself said, OThere's no point hiding the truth. These are the facts. Let people make their own judgment'."

Besides making sure Harry visited the Phoenix House centre, Charles also banned him from visiting the Rattlebone Inn again. The Prince of Wales also alerted Harry's headmaster at Eton to the problem. Harry has always been careful not to conduct this kind of behaviour at school. Harry's weekend passes from the college were immediately limited. Over Christmas Harry was instructed to spend the entire break from school with his elder brother and father.

"William is such a steadying influence," the family friend added. "The two of them have had detailed discussions and Harry has changed his ways. He now understands the very real perils of drug-taking and excessive drinking. He has a lot to be thankful for. If his brother and his father didn't care so much about him, there might well have been a different end to this story."

"Prince William is very anti-drugs and a clean-living young man with a great sense of duty. He is a good influence on his brother, who is more easily led by his peer group."