Rapper who campaigned with William backed drug pusher online

A RAPPER who spoke to schoolchildren about mental health issues with Prince William has promoted an Instagram cannabis dealer.

Professor Green, who said he has been a guest at Buckingham Palace several times, was filmed praising drug pusher Stonechester.

It comes despite him previously insisting that he is ‘long removed’ from the world of cannabis because it makes him ‘paranoid and anxious’. In the short clip posted to the dealer’s 19,000 Instagram followers, the rapper is shown apparently smoking a joint as he says: ‘Good food guys, it’s Stonechester.’ Food is slang for cannabis. It appeared on the site ten months after he spoke to pupils with the Duke of Cambridge about the importance of role models and mental health problems.

Manchester-based Stonechester has avoided deletion on Instagram for four years by including the disclaimer ‘no Sales. no DMs [direct messages]’ in the account’s biography. But the page posts pictures and videos which openly promote cannabis products with hashtags including #smokeweedeveryday, #thehighlyfe and #F***ThaFeds.

When undercover reporters contacted Stonechester via Wickr – an encrypted messaging app – the dealer was happy to sell highstrength cannabis even when they believed a customer was aged 16.

Professor Green, real name Stephen Manderson, has openly admitted selling drugs when he was younger. But in a 2017 BBC documentary about legalising cannabis, he said: ‘nowadays it makes me uncomfortable, it makes me paranoid, it makes me anxious. I’ve been well removed from that world for a long time.’

The following year – ten months before the Stonechester promotional video was posted in December 2018 – he helped William in his mental health campaign heads Together. And in an interview with the Mail last year, he said he goes to schools and prisons to encourage others to make better decisions about drugs.

Professor Green’s publicist did not respond to requests for comment.

Within five hours of the Mail contacting them, Stonechester had pulled all the cannabis content on the Instagram page. Kensington Palace declined to comment.

‘Paranoid and anxious’