Prince Harry accused of glorifying drugs with dangerous 'psychobabble'

Prince Harry has been accused by ministers of glorifying drugs with dangerous "psychobabble."

The Duke of Sussex faced a backlash on Friday from MPs, a policing chief and a drugs campaigner whose son died after the Prince admitted in his memoir that he had taken cocaine, cannabis and magic mushrooms, and claimed psychedelic drugs allowed him to see “the truth”.

With the Government set to launch a fresh crackdown on “recreational” middle class drug use, a minister said: “His comments are grossly irresponsible in that they seek to justify and promote drug use, are an embarrassment to himself and are in parts incoherent psychobabble. I hope and expect that people will simply ignore the nonsense he has come up with.” 

Another described it as “massively irresponsible.”

'As a role model, it is deeply disappointing'

David Sidwick, Dorset police and crime commissioner, who has called for cannabis to be upgraded to a class A drug because of the health risks, said Prince’s comments were “extremely unhelpful given the known harms of cannabis and emerging evidence of its links to psychosis and mental health”.

“As a role model, it is deeply disappointing. It is this tacit acknowledgement that its use is okay by people who should know better which is part of the problem.”

Prince Harry wrote in his memoir Spare that he took psychedelics both for fun and therapeutically over the years, smoking cannabis in his garden at Kensington Palace and at Eton.

Under their influence, he said he was able to see there was “another world where the red mist didn’t exist”, he said, claiming that drugs had helped him both escape and “redefine” reality.

He revealed that after the drugs wore off, he was still able to see this other world that was”just as real and twice as beautiful”, reinforcing his belief that “this is not all there is”. “Only the truth existed,” he wrote.

'Young people live in a social media copycat world'

His comments dismayed drugs campaigner Janie Hamilton whose son James died aged just 36, when he was two years younger than Prince Harry, and after he refused to have chemotherapy for testicular cancer following years battling mental illness.

His death was recorded as being partly caused by schizophrenia, which his family believe was triggered by his addiction to cannabis from the age of 14.

Mrs Hamilton said Prince Harry’s comments were “reckless” as vulnerable young people might follow suit in the false belief that such drugs could treat depression - and wrongly assuming they could, like him, avoid harm by doing so.

“My first thought was that impressionable youngsters would immediately start copying for the supposed thrill of the ‘trip’, and maybe others who are experiencing deep pain, might then consider doing the same as Prince Harry, to escape reality for a while, as to them, he may appear unscathed from his experiences,” she said.

“It is reckless of him to broadcast his choices, as young people live in a copycat world on social media and are too young to discern what may be harmful. If a Prince does it, why not them?”

Tim Loughton, a former children’s minister and Conservative member of the home affairs committee, said: “These latest outpourings are potentially dangerous to young people. 

"He really does need to think long and hard about the impact he might have on impressionable young people. If he aspires to be a role model, this is exactly the wrong way to go about it.”

Lee Anderson, Conservative MP for Ashfield, said: “Every time I see him pop up, I think he has been on drugs. Who does this? Who tries to destroy a whole family and at the same time pretend he is reaching out and wants a reunion.

“Obviously, the drugs have not worked. They have had a detrimental effect on his ability to make proper decisions. He needs to shut up, apologise to his family and hope that one day, they will take him back in. He is not a good role model at all.”