August 13th 1945. Dennis Howard Marks was born. You may also know him as Howard Marks, D.H Marks, Mr Dennis, Marco Polo and Mr Hughes. But you probably know him best as Mr Nice. Howard Marks is considered one of the most infamous marijuana smugglers of all time, and its believed that at the height of his career he was smuggling loads of up-to thirty tons of marijuana to various places all around the world.
Marks was born in the small Welsh mining village of Kenfig Hill, raised by his parents Dennis and Edna Marks. His father was a merchant Navy captain, his mother a teacher. Growing up Howard had a relatively normal life, he did all the things you’d expect from a young kid and I’m sure even he didn’t envisage what the future would hold for him or what career path he would go on to choose later in life. Whilst at school Howard discovered he had a real knack for physics, this in turn would win him a scholarship to Oxford University/Balliol College. It was whilst at Oxford, Marks first discovered Marijuana and had his first joint. He had arrived at Oxford in the 60s and LSD was still legal and naturally did some experimenting and certainly did party hard. However after the death of one of his friends Joshua Macmillan(son of Maurice) due to a drug overdose, Howard swore to never ever touch heavy drugs again. Staying true to his oath he would smoke marijuana everyday right up until his final breath.
So now armed with a new found love of the sweet sweet Mary Jane, Howard would toke away daily and began selling pot on a small scale to just his very close circle of friends. Nothing big time like it would soon become later on down the line. After graduating from Oxford with a degree in Physics, Howard would go on to train as a teacher and perused it as a career, but this just didn’t wash with him and he yearned for something more. It would be helping out an old friend which would prove to be the start of his career as international pot smuggler, as his friend at the time had just been busted for smuggling, Howard came to the rescue and the thrill really captured him, sneaking past boarders and customs all over the world, using different aliases and an assortment of fake passports, Howard would travel the world on a mission, his mission was to get the entire world stoned.
As his empire continued to grow the consignments would do so also, elaborate schemes would be devised to get shipments in and out of countries, schemes such as creating fictional musicians and bands and have speakers and equipment stuffed with dope, under the guise that they where on tour, pretty clever huh? This was just one of many ploys that got used over the years until one load got busted and back to the drawing board it was. During the mid 80s Mr Nice was said to have had over twenty different companies trading throughout the world, forty three different aliases and about eighty nine phone lines, he even had his own switchboard system in place and hired somebody to man it for him now that is truly remarkable. It is said that Mark’s did in fact attempt to legitimise some of his business fronts and could have quite easily have been a very successful entrepreneur on the right side of the law, but he just couldn’t resist the buzz of the chase.
It is well documented that Howard Mark’s had one hell of a contacts list, connections with organisations such as the CIA, IRA, MI6 and even the Mafia. The story goes that Howard was even hired by an old friend of his from Oxford turned MI6 operative, due to his connections in Hashish producing countries and the IRA. How about that? “A license to deal” Mark’s would comment tongue held firmly in his cheek. So I’m sure you are all aware crime most certainly does not pay, and you have probably guessed it yes he was arrested and sentenced on numerous occasions, and avoided a pretty hefty stint as a result of his work with the MI6. Eventually though Howard Mark’s would be sentenced to twenty five years in one of America’s most notorious jails, Terre Haute in 1988. Inside he was a legend, many a folks knew of him and he was greatly respected, he befriended all sorts of people, even high ranking Mafia men doing their time for god knows what as you can imagine.
Whilst in prison Howard would keep himself busy by funnily enough teaching the other inmates, yes the career path he shunned, but this would be a very successful venture for him, even working as an in house lawyer for the inmates and helping them with their trials etc. Mark’s was released from Terre Haute in April 1995 after seven years for exceptional behaviour.
Of course this is only a very brief insight into the life of Howard Mark’s and there is indeed so so much more to the tale that you definitely should look into. Well what does a man do after a life of smuggling you may wonder? Well in 1997 he penned his autobiography “Mr Nice” and it went on to became an international hit, he followed that up with a few more books again all very successful in their own way. A Mr Nice live tour hit the road travelling all over telling his stories and adventures to adoring fans, and would be later described as the “Narcotic Tommy Cooper”. Howard Mark’s would also feature in handful of movies such as Human Traffic and the Dirty Sanchez movie playing Satan himself! His book “Mr Nice” would get a film adaptation and so on. This guy sure did do some pretty amazing things in his time and continued to campaign publicly for change in drug legislation right up until the end. Sadly Dennis Howard Mark’s died on the 10th of April 2016 in Leeds.
When asked about his life and why those choices, he would often ponder a deep response or answer, but in the end he realised that it was just simply because he loved being stoned! and that alone was a reason for the life that he led, and his big belief was that a dope dealer is just somebody who buys more supply than they can smoke. Happy Birthday Howard, we hope you’ve got some mighty fine kush up there!
Well ladies and gents hope you enjoyed dipping you’re toes into that one, again there is so so much more to discover about this man’s life that you really should check out as we have just skimmed the surface here. That said we hope it has been a somewhat enjoyable one.
-Otto
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