At the Border, No Tip of The Hat for This Dandy

"If I had to live my life again," he told them, "I would take the same drugs, only sooner and more often."

They asked about his criminal record. Again, in the book: 25 years ago, when he was 20 and walking around London with his hair dyed bright orange, he was arrested and fined 100 British pounds for possession of a gram of amphetamines.

"Describe your relationship with Kate Moss," they said. Not in the book this time. Horsley said he'd never met the supermodel, who was questioned by police last year over newspaper photographs that appeared to show her snorting cocaine. Silently, he wondered to himself where on earth that question had come from.

He said they made him raise his right hand and "swear on the Bible" that he was telling the truth.

Then Sebastian Alexander Horsley was handed a document telling him he was being refused entry to the United States of America under the provisions of "Section 212 (a) (2) (A) (i) (I) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended."

He was being run out of America for "moral turpitude."

Banned In the U.S.A.

About 1,000 people a day are turned away trying to enter the United States at airports, seaports and border crossings, said Lucille Cirillo, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Cirillo said that is a small fraction of the 1.1 million people who try to enter daily. She didn't know how many are turned away for "moral turpitude," which the dictionary defines as vileness or depravity.

But she said that in Horsley's case, agents in Newark properly enforced the requirements of the Visa Waiver Program that allows British citizens to enter the United States without a visa.

She said Horsley forfeited that privilege because of his previous drug addiction and his criminal conviction.

"Even though it was 25 years ago, it doesn't mean that rules don't apply to him," she said. "Obtaining entry to the United States for non-U.S. citizens is a privilege, not a right. We have strict rules and guidelines that we have to enforce."

Cirillo said it was irrelevant that Horsley had stopped using drugs; drug addiction at any point in a person's life is enough for him to be refused entry, she said.