Howard Marks
Encyclopedia
Dennis Howard Marks is a Welsh
author and former drug smuggler who achieved notoriety as an international cannabis
smuggler through high-profile court cases, supposed connections with groups such as the CIA
, the IRA
, MI6, and the Mafia
, and his eventual conviction at the hands of the American Drug Enforcement Administration
. At the height of his drug career, he was said to have controlled ten percent of the world's hashish
trade.
He lives in Leeds
, West Yorkshire
, England
.
, Wales
, and attended the Garw Grammar School
in Pontycymer
(he is a fluent Welsh speaker). This was followed by Balliol College, Oxford
, between 1964 and 1967, where he studied natural science with nuclear physics. Among his friends at Balliol was the epidemiologist Julian Peto
, and the journalist Lynn Barber
. After this he studied Physics (Grad. Inst P.) at the University of London
(1967 to 1968). Then, he went back to Balliol, Oxford (1968 to 1969) to study History and Philosophy of Science (Dip. H.Ph. Sc.) and then he went on to the University of Sussex
(1969 to 1970) to study Philosophy of Science.
, Indiana
. During his smuggling career, he claims not to have used violence and to have refused to deal with hard drugs. Both he and his now ex-wife Judy Marks
were extradited from Mallorca
, Spain
to Florida
. They have three children together: Amber
, Francesca and Patrick. He also has an older daughter, Myfanwy, from a 5-year relationship with Rosie Lewis.
, Mr Nice (Secker and Warburg, 1996), which has been translated into many languages. In addition to Mr Nice, he compiled an anthology called The Howard Marks Book of Dope Stories (Vintage, 2001) and more recently a follow-on from his autobiography
; Señor Nice: Straight Life From Wales to South America. Señor Nice differs from his previous book as drugs are not central to the story and, while autobiographical, the book is more Marks' own exploration of his ancestor, the pirate Sir Henry Morgan
.
Marks is a campaigner for the legalisation of cannabis and tours the world with a one-man show. He also appeared in the documentary Stoned in Suburbia which aired on Sky1 in the UK. In October 2010, Howard hosted a documentary on Current TV
titled 'Howard Marks On Drugs', which investigated drugs laws in the UK.
Judy Marks
has also written her autobiography of their life together entitled "Mr Nice and Mrs Marks" published by Ebury Press, 2006.
Marks recorded the song 'Grow More Weed' with the UK dub punk band P.A.I.N.
Within the world of music, Marks co-recorded a song 'Three men in a boat' with his long time friend Lee Harris
. The record was later remixed by River Styx (Musician, rap poet) and released on the album 'Angel Headed Hip Hop' on Genepool/Universal Ltd.
Marks stood for election to UK Parliament
in 1997, on the single issue of the legalization of cannabis. He contested four seats at once: Norwich South (against future Home Secretary Charles Clarke
), Norwich North, Neath
and Southampton Test. The average vote was over 1%. This led to the formation of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance (LCA) by Alun Buffry
in 1999.
From 1999 to 2000 he was the honorary rector of Glasgow Caledonian University
.
On 28 October 2010 he appeared as a guest on the BBC music quiz show Never Mind the Buzzcocks
. Marks is the voice-over for the television series Dirty Sanchez
.
and also made a cameo appearance in the 1999 film Human Traffic
(in the "spliff politics" scene).
In 2010, he played a fictional role in the infamous gangster movie Killer Bitch
directed by Liam Galvin.
He is also the subject of a biopic starring Rhys Ifans
as Marks entitled Mr Nice
, named after his autobiography
of the same name. Chloë Sevigny
plays the role of his wife Judy. The film was released in October 2010.
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...
author and former drug smuggler who achieved notoriety as an international cannabis
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
smuggler through high-profile court cases, supposed connections with groups such as the CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
, the IRA
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
, MI6, and the Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
, and his eventual conviction at the hands of the American Drug Enforcement Administration
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...
. At the height of his drug career, he was said to have controlled ten percent of the world's hashish
Hashish
Hashish is a cannabis preparation composed of compressed stalked resin glands, called trichomes, collected from the unfertilized buds of the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients but in higher concentrations than unsifted buds or leaves...
trade.
He lives in Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Early life
Marks was born in Kenfig Hill, near BridgendBridgend
Bridgend is a town in the Bridgend County Borough in Wales, west of the capital, Cardiff. The river crossed by the original bridge, which gave the town its name, is the River Ogmore but the River Ewenny also passes to the south of the town...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, and attended the Garw Grammar School
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
in Pontycymer
Pontycymer
Pontycymer is a former mining village in Britain. It is situated in the Garw Valley, in Bridgend County Borough in south Wales. The name, sometimes spelled "Pontycymmer", is Welsh: pont signifies "bridge", while cymer signifies "confluence" of watercourses.Original signs for the village use the...
(he is a fluent Welsh speaker). This was followed by Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
, between 1964 and 1967, where he studied natural science with nuclear physics. Among his friends at Balliol was the epidemiologist Julian Peto
Julian Peto
Julian Peto is an English statistician and cancer epidemiologist. He is Cancer Research UK Chair of Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Institute of Cancer Research...
, and the journalist Lynn Barber
Lynn Barber
Lynn Barber is a British journalist, who writes for The Sunday Times.-Early life:Barber attended Lady Eleanor Holles School...
. After this he studied Physics (Grad. Inst P.) at the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
(1967 to 1968). Then, he went back to Balliol, Oxford (1968 to 1969) to study History and Philosophy of Science (Dip. H.Ph. Sc.) and then he went on to the University of Sussex
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....
(1969 to 1970) to study Philosophy of Science.
Imprisonment
He spent seven years imprisoned in the Federal Correctional Complex, Terre HauteFederal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute
The Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute, is a federal prison for adult males located at the intersection of State Road 63 and Springhill Drive, two miles south of Terre Haute, Indiana United States...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
. During his smuggling career, he claims not to have used violence and to have refused to deal with hard drugs. Both he and his now ex-wife Judy Marks
Judy Marks
Judy Marks is an English-born author.Judy Marks was born in Hertfordshire. From October 1974 until 2006 she lived with and eventually married the marijuana smuggler Howard Marks. She is the mother to three of his four children, the privacy researcher Amber Marks, Francesca Marks , and Patrick...
were extradited from Mallorca
Mallorca
Majorca or Mallorca is an island located in the Mediterranean Sea, one of the Balearic Islands.The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Cabrera Archipelago is administratively grouped with Majorca...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
to Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. They have three children together: Amber
Amber Marks
Amber Marks is a British barrister and author. After working as a lawyer in private practice and in the UK government legal service, she took up research on the increasing use of sniffer dogs and other olfactory surveillance methods...
, Francesca and Patrick. He also has an older daughter, Myfanwy, from a 5-year relationship with Rosie Lewis.
Life after release
Following his release from prison, Marks published a best-selling autobiographyAutobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, Mr Nice (Secker and Warburg, 1996), which has been translated into many languages. In addition to Mr Nice, he compiled an anthology called The Howard Marks Book of Dope Stories (Vintage, 2001) and more recently a follow-on from his autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
; Señor Nice: Straight Life From Wales to South America. Señor Nice differs from his previous book as drugs are not central to the story and, while autobiographical, the book is more Marks' own exploration of his ancestor, the pirate Sir Henry Morgan
Henry Morgan
Admiral Sir Henry Morgan was an Admiral of the Royal Navy, a privateer, and a pirate who made a name for himself during activities in the Caribbean, primarily raiding Spanish settlements...
.
Marks is a campaigner for the legalisation of cannabis and tours the world with a one-man show. He also appeared in the documentary Stoned in Suburbia which aired on Sky1 in the UK. In October 2010, Howard hosted a documentary on Current TV
Current TV
Current TV, or Current, is a media company led by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and businessman Joel Hyatt. Comcast owns a ten percent stake of Current's parent company, Current Media LLC....
titled 'Howard Marks On Drugs', which investigated drugs laws in the UK.
Judy Marks
Judy Marks
Judy Marks is an English-born author.Judy Marks was born in Hertfordshire. From October 1974 until 2006 she lived with and eventually married the marijuana smuggler Howard Marks. She is the mother to three of his four children, the privacy researcher Amber Marks, Francesca Marks , and Patrick...
has also written her autobiography of their life together entitled "Mr Nice and Mrs Marks" published by Ebury Press, 2006.
Marks recorded the song 'Grow More Weed' with the UK dub punk band P.A.I.N.
Within the world of music, Marks co-recorded a song 'Three men in a boat' with his long time friend Lee Harris
Lee Harris
Lee Harris is an American author and essayist who writes for Policy Review and Tech Central Station who lives in Stone Mountain, Georgia.-Books by Lee Harris:*The Suicide of Reason: Radical Islam's Threat to the West Basic Books...
. The record was later remixed by River Styx (Musician, rap poet) and released on the album 'Angel Headed Hip Hop' on Genepool/Universal Ltd.
Marks stood for election to UK Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
in 1997, on the single issue of the legalization of cannabis. He contested four seats at once: Norwich South (against future Home Secretary Charles Clarke
Charles Clarke
Charles Rodway Clarke is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Norwich South from 1997 until 2010, and served as Home Secretary from December 2004 until May 2006.-Early life:...
), Norwich North, Neath
Neath (UK Parliament constituency)
Neath is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election and one Assembly Member by the first past the post system of election.- The Constituency of Neath :The constituency...
and Southampton Test. The average vote was over 1%. This led to the formation of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance (LCA) by Alun Buffry
Alun Buffry
Alun Buffry in Barry, South Wales, is a cannabis and human rights campaigner. He is associated with the Legalise Cannabis Alliance once a political party of the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2006, when it deregistered and became a pressure group...
in 1999.
From 1999 to 2000 he was the honorary rector of Glasgow Caledonian University
Glasgow Caledonian University
Glasgow Caledonian University is a public university in Glasgow, Scotland.The university was constituted by an Act of Parliament on 1 April 1993 as a result of a merger between Glasgow Polytechnic and The Queen's College, Glasgow....
.
On 28 October 2010 he appeared as a guest on the BBC music quiz show Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Never Mind the Buzzcocks is a comedy panel game television show with a pop music theme, currently without a permanent presenter. It stars Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding as team captains. The show is produced by Talkback Thames for the BBC, and is usually aired on BBC Two...
. Marks is the voice-over for the television series Dirty Sanchez
Dirty Sanchez
Dirty Sanchez is commonly mistaken to be an act where the faecal matter it purposefully smeared onto a partner's upper lip. The term 'dirty sanchez' originated in the porn industry, particularly films involving ass to mouth action. It describes the Dirty Sanchez is commonly mistaken to be an act...
.
Films
Marks had a role as a customs officer in the planned film Ecstasy, based on the bestselling book by Irvine WelshIrvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh is a contemporary Scottish novelist, best known for his novel Trainspotting. His work is characterised by raw Scottish dialect, and brutal depiction of the realities of Edinburgh life...
and also made a cameo appearance in the 1999 film Human Traffic
Human Traffic
Human Traffic is a British independent film written and directed by Welsh filmmaker Justin Kerrigan. The film explores themes of coming of age, drug and club cultures, as well as relationships. It includes scenes provoking social commentary and the use of archive footage to provide political...
(in the "spliff politics" scene).
In 2010, he played a fictional role in the infamous gangster movie Killer Bitch
Killer Bitch
Killer Bitch is a 2010 British action-gangster film written and directed by Liam Galvin.The film became notorious in the UK in August 2009, shortly after shooting started, when tabloid newspapers the News of the World and The People carried stories implying that the movie's star, Katie Price's...
directed by Liam Galvin.
He is also the subject of a biopic starring Rhys Ifans
Rhys Ifans
Rhys Ifans is a Welsh actor and musician. He is known for his portrayal of characters such as Spike in Notting Hill and Jed Parry in Enduring Love and as a member of the Welsh rock groups Super Furry Animals and The Peth. Ifans also appeared as Xenophilius Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Deathly...
as Marks entitled Mr Nice
Mr. Nice (film)
Mr. Nice is a 2010 crime film directed by Bernard Rose, and starring Rhys Ifans with Crispin Glover and Chloë Sevigny. The film tells the story of Howard Marks, a notorious Welsh drug smuggler; the screenplay was adapted by director Rose from Marks' autobiography of the same name...
, named after his autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
of the same name. Chloë Sevigny
Chloë Sevigny
Chloë Stevens Sevigny is an American film actress, fashion designer and former model. Sevigny gained reputation for her eclectic fashion sense and developed a broad career in the fashion industry in the mid 1990s, both for modeling and for her work at New York's Sassy magazine, which labeled her...
plays the role of his wife Judy. The film was released in October 2010.
External links
- Official home page
- review of 'Mr. Nice'
- Kool MagazineKool MagazineKool Magazine was the first free full colour glossy magazine available in East Anglia UK. It was aimed at 16- to 24-year-olds and covered music, fashion, arts, as well as exclusive interviews with celebrities...
Interview with Howard Marks 5 August 1999 *http://www.koolmag.com/music/interviews/interviews.html - Howard's page, Conville and WalshConville and WalshConville & Walsh Ltd is a literary agency founded by Patrick Walsh and Clare Conville in 2000, and based in Soho, London. The agency numbers six book agents in a staff of eleven.Conville and Walsh is a full member of the Association of Authors' Agents....
literary agents - Trebuchet Magazine Interview with Howard Marks 2007 *http://www.trebuchet-magazine.com/index.php/site/article/howard_marks_first_there_was_the_welsh/