Harry’s drug use ‘could threaten his US visa’, lawyer warns
Prince Harry’s US visa could be revoked after he admitted using drugs when he was younger, a legal expert has warned.
The Duke of Sussex revealed he had done cocaine, smoked marijuana and experimented with magic mushrooms and ayahuasca in his autobiography Spare.
It has now prompted former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani to warn such a confession could jeapordise Harry’s family life in California.
Mr Rahmani told Page Six ‘an admission of drug use is usually grounds for inadmissibility’ and stressed there is ‘no exception for royalty for recreational use’.
It is not known what visa Harry used to move to California with Meghan Markle in 2020, but most people from the UK use an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA).
An ESTA application asks the question: ‘Have you ever violated any law related to possessing, using or distributing illegal drugs?’
People who have a past with drugs are not automatically barred from entering the US, but those who have struggled with addiction have to prove they have been sober for at least one year.
A DC-based conservative think tank, called the Heritage Foundation, wants to know how Harry answered this question or its equivalent.
Project director Mike Howell argues it is in the ‘public interest’ to know whether US officials ‘complied with the law in admitting Prince Harry’.
The US State Department has refused to answer questions about Harry’s immigration status, stressing ‘visa records are confidential’.
Other legal experts disagree that Harry coming clean about his drug use would have any impact on his visa.
Immigration lawyer Sam Adair and several more said it is ‘unlikely these admissions will present a problem’ because Harry has not been convicted of anything.
Metro.co.uk has contacted Prince Harry’s representatives for comment.
Harry said he tried cocaine at the age of 17 but ‘it wasn’t very fun’ and ‘didn’t make him feel especially happy’.
He also told how marijuana and psychedelics ‘really helped’ him cope with his mental health struggles.
Speaking about using ayahuasca as a ‘release’, he said: ‘I started doing it recreationally and then started to realise how good it was for me.
‘I would say it is one of the fundamental parts of my life that changed me and helped me deal with the traumas and pains of the past.’
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