They tell you that if you do drugs, you'll never get anywhere. I personally know plenty of people who do drugs and never got anywhere. But there's always an exception. Henry T. Nicholas III is a billionaire who founded Broadcom, a microchip manufacturer. He's under indictment on drug charges and faces accusations of orgies.

The 18-page indictment on drug charges alleges that Mr Nicholas kept four properties in Orange County and Las Vegas, including a warehouse in Laguna Niguel where he stashed and distributed cocaine, crystal meth and ecstasy. He later remodelled the warehouse with private rooms and furnished it with art and high-end electronics.

The court documents also claim that Mr Nicholas hired prostitutes and escorts for himself, his employees and customers and conspired to get illegal prescriptions for drugs such as Valium.

In 2001, according to one count on the indictment, Mr Nicholas smoked so much marijuana during a flight on a private jet between Orange County and Las Vegas that the pilot had to put on an oxygen mask. At a July 1999 Woodstock concert in Rome, New York, he is alleged to have given ecstasy to an unwitting technology executive. He is also accused of having spiked a technology executive's drink with ecstasy in New Orleans in early 2000.

That's what you call "livin' the high life". The judge set his bail at $3.3 million dollars, which he had no trouble posting. Some folks really are different from the rest of us.