Queen Victoria toked

THE NEXT time you find it necessary to print that Prince Harry is reputed
to have used marijuana, you might mention that his great-great-great-great
grandmother, Queen Victoria, did also. According to her private secretary,
Sir Henry Ponsonby, the Queen used it to alleviate the pain caused by her
arthritis. Of course, in the Queen's day use was lawful and the fanatics of
1923 had not done their silly work. I was going to write that perhaps
Victoria was under the influence when she chose Ottawa as our nation's
capital but she was too young at the time to have suffered from her
late-developing arthritis.

K. W. Arnott

(If Victoria was really a stoner, wouldn't the Victorian Age have been a
lot mellower?)