The Saturday Interview:

RICHARD BRANSON

One of Britain's Best Known Entrepreneurs - and a Man Who Knows a
Thing or Two About Counterculture - Richard Branson Is Joining Calls
for an End to the War on Drugs

Sir Richard Branson June 02, 2011 at The Waldorf Astoria Hotel in
Manhattan 'Nobody should go to prison for taking drugs' ... Richard
Branson. Photograph: Dan Callister

Gathered within the plush confines of New York's Waldorf Astoria
hotel is a veritable UN of former presidents from around the world,
George Soros, the billionaire investor, and Sir Richard Branson.
Everyone is talking about drugs, though no one seems to be having much fun.

These luminaries are in New York to support the Global Commission on
Drug Policy, a thinktank that is calling for an end to the so-called
"war on drugs". Branson, who is one of the commissioners, is putting
some cash in, as is Soros. Branson's son, Sam, is working on a
documentary - a film his father hopes will do for the drugs debate
what An Inconvenient Truth did for global warming.

The rest of the commission are serious people, including the former
presidents and prime minsters of Colombia, Greece, Mexico and
Switzerland, the UN's Kofi Annan, the writers Carlos Fuentes and
Mario Vargas Llosa. But it's Branson the cameras flash at most during
the press conference. Afterwards, the group is photographed together,
and Branson plays the clown, throwing his hands up in the air and
whipping out that megawatt smile. It's cheesy as hell, but everyone laughs.

Seldom has he goofed around with more serious a purpose. It's been 50
years since the United Nations orchestrated a global convention on
drug prohibition, and 40 years since president Richard Nixon declared
a war on drugs. It isn't working. According to the UN's own figures,
between 1998 and 2008 opiate consumption increased by 34.5%
worldwide, and cocaine use rose by 25%. Drugs have turned parts of
Mexico into a war zone, they are financing terrorists around the
world and costing taxpayers billions. "I've seen the war on drugs and
I've not been impressed," says Branson. "Thousands of people are
being killed in Mexico because of the demand for drugs in America.
Whole sections of society are becoming lawless, and most of it is
over marijuana."

The Virgin king, who is 61 next month, had his first big business
success with a music label, where he made grade-A drug contacts.
Keith Richards taught him to roll a joint. "I was a late starter, in
my early 20s, in a recording studio in Oxford. He was very patient
with me," says Branson. Nor is he a stranger to the damage drugs can
do. Branson signed the Sex Pistols before the heroin-addicted Sid
Vicious murdered his girlfriend and committed suicide. He was also
close to 1980s pop icon Boy George, a "massive talent", who has
struggled with drug addiction. He put the star up at his house when
he was trying to kick the habit. George had lost "two or three
people" close to him to drugs at the time, says Branson. "He was just
very lucky that he wasn't one of the ones to go."

Branson wasn't impressed with the official "solution" to George's
drug issues. "The police turned up and arrested him when he was in
treatment. What good does that do?" he says. "It was obvious to me
that locking people up in prison was not the answer. Treating the
problem as a health problem, rather than a crime, is. In the few
countries in the world where they have decriminalised the taking of
drugs, Portugal being the best example, the amount of heroin addicts
has dropped by half. There's been a drop in the HIV figures, the
amount of cannabis use is the lowest in Europe."

He hopes the commission can help focus a debate on the facts, because
the alternative is unsustainable, he says. "In the US, prisons are
literally loaded with people who have taken drugs on a few occasions.
Mainly black people. It's very much a racist set-up when it comes to
the drug issues in America. It costs society a fortune, and these
people, who could be productive members of society, have their lives ruined."

The situation isn't much different in the UK, he says, where 80,000
people a year get sentences for drugs. "The commission believes
nobody should be sent to prison for taking drugs," he says. In other
countries the state of affairs is worse, with people executed for
taking a small amount of dope. Branson has been working to get two
women out of jail in Thailand who have, so far, served 27 years for
what in other countries would be minor drug offences. He says it's
"incredible" how little the debate has moved on since the 1960s. "It
has just got worse and worse and worse."

With his own children, Branson says he was much more worried about
tobacco than other drugs. The billionaire and his wife Jane have two
children, Holly and Sam, both in their late 20s. "I told them when
they became teenagers that the chances of them smoking marijuana were
extremely likely, and if they did it, to be open about it," he says.
He suggested they tried not to do it to excess, avoided mixing it
with tobacco and that "skunk is not a good idea".

Branson has even smoked weed with Sam, a revelation that continues to
make his son squirm. Father, rather creepily, joined him on his gap
year and the two went surfing and enjoyed the wacky backy. "He said,
'Please don't mention that again, Dad,'" says Branson, looking a bit
sheepish. "There was one occasion where we smoked together and we had
a good laugh. No harm was done to anybody."

Drugs have never personally been a problem for Branson, he says: "I'm
the sort of person who is extreme at anything they do. I'm therefore
careful not to overindulge." He has admitted to taking other drugs
including cocaine and ecstasy in the past. The vast majority of
people, himself included, can use drugs safely and occasionally, he says.

It's the sort of candour that doesn't play well with politicians,
even in an age when the president of the US has openly admitted he
has taken drugs, and that he even inhaled. Branson isn't expecting to
convert David Cameron or any other politician overnight: "I talk to a
lot of politicians and, individually, almost every single one of them
knows that this is the right approach. They all are just terrified of
the Daily Mail. If the Daily Mail changes its approach, the
politicians will change their approach. If the Daily Mail don't, they
won't." The situation is "sad" he says.

But the problem isn't going away. Getting drugs is easy. "If you want
to get some drugs, in five minutes they can be here," he says. "And
if they don't come, you'll have to go out on the streets to some
shady area ... " He goes on, outlining an ever darker trip into drug
land - needles infected with HIV, drugs mixed with embalming fluid.

It's not about legalising drugs, he says, it's about decriminalising
them. "This is not an unpopular thing to say, it is what the vast
majority of people in this country believe," he says. But the problem
is that politicians use the war on drugs to score points off each
other. "The opposite of war on drugs is soft on drugs in some
people's minds," says Branson.

The same arguments hold true for prostitution, he says. Politicians
don't want to say it, but if prostitution were decriminalised and
brothels were safe places for sex workers and their clients, society
would benefit.

Are we ready for Virgin Brothels? In the meantime, Branson is
concentrating on getting into a business that's almost as
controversial these days - banking. Virgin is currently in the
running to buy 600 Lloyds Bank branches. It will be Branson's third
attempt to gain a significant foothold in the UK banking scene. Does
he worry his drug stance will queer the pitch with the authorities?

"I'm not worried about that. Sometimes you have go with what you
believe," he says.

Branson hasn't really had to care what people think for a long time.
A serial entrepreneur, he was running his first successful business,
a magazine called Student, at the age of 16. He went on to make a
fortune with Virgin Records, whose first big hit was Mike Oldfield's
Tubular Bells. Drugs did ruin one big deal during his record years:
Dire Straits were due to sign for Virgin but cancelled after a
meeting in which a Virgin exec had offered them a joint. Years later,
Branson learned the band thought they were being drugged to befuddle them.

The Virgin brand went from strength to strength as Branson launched
airlines, phone companies, round-the-world balloon trips, jeans,
drinks businesses, gyms. Even when it's gone wrong - Virgin Rail, for
example - Branson has pulled through and gone on to the next big idea.

He's into rockets these days, looking to build a future in space
tourism. And he is spending more and more time on charity ventures.
Branson says he now spends about half his time working with charities.

"I've made all the money I need to make. I can put that money to good
use, and I should. Business people who are lucky enough to have made
some money, maybe a bit of a reputation, should put that to some use,
tackling the seemingly intractable problems of the world," he says.

A number of other very wealthy business people, led by billionaire
investor Warren Buffett and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, recently
pledged to give away their wealth to charity. The pair have convinced
others, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, New York mayor
Michael Bloomberg and CNN founder Ted Turner, to sign the Giving
Pledge and hand at least half their money to charity.

He says it's something that might interest him, but he's not terribly
convincing. Holly qualified as a doctor, and now works in the Virgin
empire, and Sam is working on this documentary. "What we are trying
to do is keep the engine going, and spend money on things like what
we are doing today," he says. Rich families have different dynamics.
It depends on "how productive the children are. Whether they are
going to waste the money or do good works." And what's his conclusion
about his kids? "They're great. So far, so good."

He doesn't have plans for Virgin Weed any time soon, even if the
drugs war gets called off. "I've got 400 companies, I don't need
401," he says, and pauses. You can see his business brain ticking
over. "If I wasn't a commissioner," he starts, then he stops himself ...