Howard Marks opens up about cancer battle in one of his last ever interviews

Howard Marks opened up about his cancer battle in one of his last ever interviews

The man dubbed "the most sophisticated drugs baron of all time" admitted he became hooked on his chemotherapy 

He was once dubbed “the most sophisticated drugs baron of all time” and has been addicted to drugs smuggling all of his life.

And since being diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer, Howard Marks has found himself hooked on an entirely different – and legal – drug – chemotherapy.

The 70-year-old, who has been having the treatment since his diagnosis just over a year ago, says: “I always thought you get addicted to drugs only that get you high but you actually get addicted to these chemotherapy drugs.

“It's a bit of a downer. You get withdrawal symptoms.

"It's very disappointing getting withdrawal symptoms from something that doesn't get you stoned in the first place.”

Rhys Ifans and Howard Marks after he played him in a film

He adds with a throaty laugh: “It seems very unfair to me.”

The father-of-four and grandfather, who goes into hospital for the treatment once a fortnight, admits that his past life as a drugs trafficker has its benefits though.

“It's not the cancer that will kill you - it's the side effects that really make life not worth living,” he explains. “That's what usually happens.

“Sometimes I can't even talk, walk or see anything. My vision gets blurred.”

There's another laugh as he adds: “It's quite nasty but I'm quite used to bad effects of drugs

“I seem to be fairly immune to them so far. The big come downs and sort of things like that I'm very, very used to so I can cope with them.

“If you've not experienced it it can be quite frightening. At least I don't have that to worry about.”

Howard assures me hasn't taken any drugs since he took seven weeks supply of cannabis oil and ended up getting sectioned not long after his diagnosis.

"I just thought this is the way of beating of it, just whack the hell out of it," he explains. "I just wanted to take enough to kill the tumour."

He spent two weeks in a psychiatric hospital and says: “I thought I was in prison so I escaped at first.

Howard Marks wrote a book about his life of crime

"I got into a taxi after I had some of my books delivered because many of the staff wanted signed copies and went home," he says.

"Once I realised it was a nut house and not a prison, I checked myself back in!

“I didn't think it was that inappropriate. I was behaving like a lunatic.”

Howard Marks performs at The Boileroom, Guildford

Born in a small coal-mining village in the Welsh valleys, to a father who was a highly decorated merchant navy convoy commodore during the Second World War, who Howard says was no stranger to smuggling himself.

The author had been battling bowel cancer

So you could say its in his blood.

On leaving school, he studied nuclear physics at Oxford's prestigious Balliol College, whose famous alumni includes three former Prime Ministers.

“The adrenaline rush probably more than anything else, which I imagine is shared by sportsmen, gamblers and people like that,” he says. “When you're risking something the adrenaline is high.”

But there's another reason.

Howard Marks was sentenced to 25 years in jail in 1988

With mischief in his voice, he adds: “There's obviously this sense of trying to get one over of the authority.”

He promises me his smuggling days are now over though – it's been nearly two decades since his last deal, which he saw go up in flames.

It's something he's never publicly talked about, until now.

He explains: “I thought: 'Oh hell, it's alright if I change enough names' as I did in Mr Nice. It will be safe and no one will get into trouble.”

After getting out of prison, he heard a rumour that a drug dealer had taken the location of a huge ecstasy batch to his grave following a fall from a three-storey building.