Mr Nice: A History of Howard Marks Part 1

 

Many of you in the cannabis community will have heard of the legend that is Mr Nice. Whether that be from the seed company, various strains or the man himself Howard Marks. He has always been a big name, especially in the UK due to his being a Welshman. Unfortunately, Howard Marks died of cancer in 2016, but this did not spell the end of his legacy. Marks is still well known and revered all over the world as a drug smuggler, activist, performer and writer. In this article, I will look into the rise of Mr Nice. What led Howard to become the famous face of the cannabis movement and his lengthy imprisonment. In part 2 I will delve into the aftermath including his tours, his novel and all of his other works as a cannabis activist until his death.

 

Becoming Mr Nice

 

Howard Marks was born in Kenfig Hill in Whales and was the son of a teacher and a merchant navy captain. From a young age, he was singled out for his intelligence and was the first from his town to study at Oxford. Initially, he decided to read physics and did so from 1964 – 1967. He rather quickly discovered that philosophy was more his bag and from there he met the first person to introduce him to hash. Of course, in the late 60s, no one was more cannabis happy than the average university student. He managed to pass his exams and went on to teacher training and his first marriage to Ilze Kadegis. Instead of teaching Marks decided to continue to further education which eventually led to him studying philosophy of science at the University of Sussex in the late 60s.

 

Marks engaged in some very light drug dealing when he was at university, but nothing large scale. This changed when a colleague of his in the drug trade was arrested in Germany and Howard was offered a promotion. He began dealing in greater volumes around London until his incarcerated friend was released, then things began to expand. He was offered trafficking work in Germany with a New Zealand smuggler as his driver. Soon the group became fed up with the man at the top who appeared to do nothing other than taking the lion’s share of the profits. They decided to start smuggling hash into Ireland from where they would transport it to England and Wales. Over the next couple of years, the group started making significantly more money while still managing to avoid customs and trouble with the law. Marks then began to export cannabis to the US to the Brotherhood of Eternal Love. He smuggled the drugs by hiding them in musical instruments and amps that were being sent over for fictional British bands. One thing led to another, essentially one arrest led to another, and Marks was taken down in 1973 by the Dutch police but skipped bail in 1974. This put Marks on a lot of front pages and made him an infamous figure.

 

Around this time he had also been a spy for government agency MI6. Due to his connections with the IRA and other rather dangerous parties, Marks was recruited by MI6 and this aspect of his life permeates the rest of his story. It is definitely worth purchasing the novel Mr Nice to get a real look into this side of Marks.

 

In 1974, Howard was accused of bringing cannabis into the USA which led to him fleeing from the brass with his new girlfriend Judy Lane. They hid in Pakistan where Judy’s brother was found a job as a teacher. Of course, Pakistan is a country famous for its cannabis production, and this led to more easy smuggling for Howard Marks. Judy and Howard officially tied the knot in 1980, after the arrival of their first daughter. Well, that was the plan, Howard was not going to show up to the wedding because he had been arrested. Due to his previous avoidance of justice, he was sentenced to three years in prison. In true Marks fashion, he only served a fraction of this sentence, just three months.

 

When he was released a lot of his men were still in prison for smuggling and so Howard began a legitimate wine import business. He was still spending significantly more than he was making which began to eat through the profits from his drug dealing. Marks was offered another smuggling job with a previous boss and he accepted. This brought Marks back into the world of drug smuggling as well as money laundering. After several blunders, busts and cock-ups Marks decided that he was going to retire from the smuggling business for good. Unfortunately, it was too late and Howard was arrested with his wife Judy for a large number of previous crimes.

 

Marks was taken down by US authorities and was initially sentenced to 25 years in Terre Haute federal prison, thought to be one of the tougher prisons in the US. In 1995 he was released on parole after serving just 7 years of his 25-year sentence. It was after his time in prison that Howard Marks began the next leg of his journey to becoming the Mr Nice that the world knows and that a lot of the world loves.

 

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to cover a lot of the fun parts of Marks’ life during this era. There was a good deal of drinking, frolicking, visiting sex workers and anything else you can imagine in various parts of the world. There is also a lot more detail about the various aspects of the smuggling business and the actual runs that he was a part of. It is worth reading the book Mr Nice that he released in 1996. The book gives a far more detailed description of his time as one of the worlds biggest and most prevalent drug smugglers.

 

Come back to the next section where we look at Marks post-prison and in the section of his life as an author, performer and activist. See you then!

 

Newsletter Sign Up

 

Make sure you never miss another Vault promo – sign up for our newsletter at https://www.cannabis-seeds-store.co.uk/the-vault-newsletter

 

Remember: It is illegal to germinate cannabis seeds in many countries including the UK.  It is our duty to inform you of this fact and to urge you to obey all of your local laws to the letter.  The Vault only ever sells or sends out seeds for souvenir, collection or novelty purposes.