'I've smoked cannabis and it was great': Former M&S chief Sir Stuart Rose admits smoking the drug while at the helm of store

Sir Stuart Rose said he tried drug while on holiday five years ago

He said his first experience of drug was on his school leaving day



Sir Stuart Rose has said he smoked cannabis while he was at the helm of Marks & Spencer

Former Marks & Spencer chief executive Sir Stuart Rose has admitted smoking cannabis while he was at the helm of the store.

Sir Stuart, one of the UK’s most well-known business leaders and current chairman of online retailer Ocado, said he tried the drug while on holiday five years ago.

Speaking to The Times magazine, Sir Stuart, 64, said his first experience with smoking marijuana was on his school leaving day.

‘I smoked a joint when I was 18 on the day I left school. I was sick as a pig,’ he said.

‘I never had a joint again until I went to a friend’s house for lunch, in a foreign country, about five years ago, and we had a very nice lunch on a very hot day looking over the sparkling sea.

‘This box of cigars went round, cigarettes, and I was fumbling around, and I found this thing and said, “What’s that?” And my host said, “Shut up and smoke it”.

‘So I did, and I giggled a lot, and he gave me two to go away with, and I smoked the other one the following day, and the following one about two months later, and I have to say, it was great! And I’ve never had one since.’

Sir Stuart started working at M&S in 1972 as a trainee and rose through the ranks to become chief executive in 2004. The company has struggled over recent years to maintain its position.

Sir Stuart, who left M&S in 2011, said his drug taking was tame. He added: ‘I’m very boring. I can’t think of the last time I got so drunk that I couldn’t remember anything.’

He said that every January for the past 25 years, he has stopped drinking alcohol.

‘Unfortunately, I love wine – I’ve got a ridiculously large cellar, more wine than I could ever drink.’