PALACE 'DISMAYED' BY DRUG REPORTS

St James's Palace has not denied that Prince Harry was sent to a drugs
rehabilitation clinic for a day after he admitted to smoking cannabis and
drinking alcohol.

It is acknowledging that there has been a problem - a "serious matter", as
it says in the statements.

But it is suggesting that the reports in the News of the World are exaggerated.

The palace is saying that over a two-month period last year, thought to be
last summer, Prince Harry "experimented on several occasions" with the soft
drug cannabis.

It said that this was always in private. It is acknowledged also that he
was drinking heavily.

It is reported that he was confronted by his father, Prince Charles, and
that as a consequence Prince Harry went - just on one occasion, for a
couple of hours - to a drug rehabilitation centre where he saw heroin
addicts, and saw the consequences of drug abuse.

'No More Experimenting'

St James's Palace insists that this matter has now been resolved and is closed.

According to the palace Prince Harry has himself decided that he no longer
has any wish to continue to experiment with cannabis.

His father has been confronted by a problem which of course many parents
will be confronted by.

He and the authorities at Eton College, where Prince Harry is now back at
school, will be watching the situation very carefully to make sure there is
no resumption of what they acknowledge is a very serious matter.

Concern About Friends

Certainly St James's Palace will be dismayed that this has occurred.

The concern may be that Prince Harry, and indeed at an earlier stage Prince
William, were with people - in fact some of their friends were people - who
had experimented with drugs, and indeed taken that experimentation to a
rather more serious level.

The palace will be anxious to co-operate with Eton to ensure between them
that Prince Harry does not resume any of this "experimentation".