Prince Harry Encouraged Illegal Drug Use, Court Filing Alleges

Prince Harry has been accused of “bragging and encouraging illegal drug use” in his book Spare in a court filing, Newsweek can reveal.

The Heritage Foundation is suing Joe Biden’s administration in an attempt to obtain Prince Harry’s visa forms, to determine whether the royal disclosed his use of drugs.

The prince’s book, Spare, describes taking cocaine, cannabis, magic mushrooms and ayahuasca, adding: “Psychedelics did me some good.”

Harry’s disclosures prompted the conservative think tank to sue the Department of Homeland Security under the Freedom of Information Act, saying he may have been given favorable treatment when he applied for a U.S. visa.

The Biden administration is fighting the case, at Federal Court in the District of Columbia, saying that visa applicants have a right to privacy. However, the foundation has countered that Harry undermined his own privacy in the book.

The Duke of Sussex has “sold every aspect of his private life for, in some estimates, over $135 million,” Heritage’s court filing reads.

The document, seen by Newsweek, reads: “[The case] comes about in the main because HRH [His Royal Highness] voluntarily—and for immense profit—admitted in writing to the elements of any number of controlled substance violations. (Indeed, some say HRH has approached the point of bragging and encouraging illegal drug use.)

“The Duke of Sussex did so despite the fact that it is widely known that such admissions can have adverse immigration consequences for non-citizens and despite employing preeminent legal advisors on both sides of the Atlantic,” the document added.

“But that is not all. This case is further bespoke in that HRH—again for immense profit—detailed his immigration decisions and manner of entry in writing and via Netflix video.

“Add to that the fact that all aspects of HRH’s travel are extensively covered in the press,” the document read.

Heritage says that the prince’s status as a public figure “significantly reduces his privacy interests” and cited public ridicule of Harry’s privacy rights.

The filing reads: “The Duke of Sussex has sold every aspect of his private life for, in some estimates, over $135 million. HRH’s [His Royal Highness’] claims of privacy interests in the face of this conduct have been met with widespread public ridicule.

“The Duke of Sussex must take the good with the bad. Having sold all manner of private matters for profit—including specific details on his taking up residence in the United States and every detail of his years of illegal drug use to the point of braggadocio—HRH must accept a substantially diminished privacy interest,” the filing adds.

A passage in Spare reads: “Psychedelics did me some good as well. I’d experimented with them over the years, for fun, but now I’d begun to use them therapeutically, medicinally. They didn’t simply allow me to escape reality for a while, they let me redefine reality.

“Under the influence of these substances I was able to let go of rigid preconcepts, to see that there was another world beyond my heavily filtered senses, a world that was equally real and doubly beautiful—a world with no red mist, no reason for red mist. There was only truth,” the passage adds.

“After the psychedelics wore off my memory of that world would remain: This is not all there is. All the great seers and philosophers say our daily life is an illusion.

“I always felt the truth in that. But how reassuring it was, after nibbling a mushroom, or ingesting ayahuasca, to experience it for myself,” the passage reads.

The case continues.

Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.

Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you.