Associated Press Writer

Prime Minister Tony Blair praised Prince Charles on Sunday for the way he handled Prince Harry's reported drinking and marijuana use.

Blair, whose own son Euan, then 16, was arrested when police found him drunk and vomiting in central London in July 2000, said the teen-age heir to the British throne had faced a difficult situation. "I know this myself," he said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp.


Harry, the 17-year-old son of Charles and third in line to the throne, drank with friends at a pub near Charles' Highgrove country estate in western England and smoked marijuana with friends, the News of the World tabloid reported Sunday.

Charles sent Harry, then 16, to a drug rehabilitation center in London for a day _ as a learning experience _ after he found out about his son's drug use last summer, the paper reported.

Charles' office at St. James's Palace did not deny the report, which was picked up Sunday by many British newspapers and broadcasters.

"This was a serious matter which was resolved within the family and is now in the past and closed," an official at the office said on condition of anonymity.

Harry left the Eton school this weekend to spend time with his father at Highgrove.

Marijuana use is illegal in Britain and the legal drinking age is 18.

Harry _ who was 12 when his mother, Princess Diana, died in 1997 _ did not need therapy at the drug rehabilitation center, Featherstone Lodge, but spent a day there talking to recovering addicts, the News of the World reported.

Bill Puddicombe, chief executive of Phoenix House Treatment Service for Drug Dependency, which runs Featherstone Lodge, said Harry had visited at the request of his father, who is a patron of the center.


"They told him what had happened in their lives, which must have been quite harrowing for him," Puddicombe said.

The News of the World said Harry had experimented with marijuana over a two-month period at Highgrove, in a rundown shed at a nearby pub and at private parties held by friends.

Charles was often away on business and Harry's brother Prince William was away traveling on a "gap" year between high school and university, the newspaper said.


Harry is third in line for the British throne after his father and his older brother.