The claims will reportedly be contained in a highly critical book by author Joe McGinniss which is due to be published in the United States next week.
The allegations about the former Alaska Governor, who has been pursued by the US tabloid press since running for the Vice Presidency in 2008, were originally published in the National Enquirer, which quoted publishing sources close to the book.
Mr McGinniss is said to claim that Mrs Palin smoked marijuana while a student and had a six-month affair with her husband Todd's business partner, Brad Hanson, in 1996, a claim that has previously been denied by both parties.
The author also accuses her of being a “bad mother” who neglects her five children and describes her propensity for sleeping naked on high school athletic trips, one report claims.
He is understood to have alleged that Mrs Palin had a “fetish” for black men and had a one-night stand with basketball player Glen Rice, who went on to play for the Miami Heat, less than a year before marrying Todd.
She was a local sports reporter at the time and reports suggest that Rice is quoted in the book confirming that the tryst took place.
The book also allegedly suggests that Mrs Palin snorted cocaine off an oil drum whilst on a snowmobiling trip with friends shortly before she was elected Alaska Governor in 2006.
Mr McGinniss is understood to have quoted a family friend who alleged that Todd also used cocaine and “was on the end of the straw of plenty”.
Mrs Palin's life has been under the microscope for three years but the claims will be the first such allegations by a serious author, and will be seized on by her enemies.
The allegations fly in the face of her well documented conservative family values and anti-drugs stance and could irreversibly damage her political career and any aspirations of running for the White House. Mrs Palin has not responded publicly so far.
Mr McGinniss, 67, is best known for his book The Selling of the President about Richard Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign.
The author rented a house next to the Palin family's lakeside home in Wasilla, Alaska, for several months while he completed The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, prompting Mrs Palin to furiously accuse him of planning to spy on her family.
The contents of the book are based on interviews with around 200 of her present and former associates.
Anticipation of its release has been heightened by a series of cartoons by Garry Trudeau, the American Doonesbury cartoonist, who has based several recent strips around its disclosures.
He names sources including Gary Wheeler, Mrs Palin’s former head of security and her former chief of staff, Mike Tibbles.
One of his strips reportedly claims that 20 ethnic minority staff were fired because “Sarah just isn’t comfortable in the presence of dark-skinned people”.
Mr McGinniss’s agent would not comment on the National Enquirer’s claims but said the magazine “often gets these reports right”.
By Nick Allen taken from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/sarah-palin/8764021/Sarah-Palin-accused-of-taking-cocaine-in-new-book.html
The book also allegedly suggests that Mrs Palin snorted cocaine off an oil drum whilst on a snowmobiling trip with friends shortly before she was elected Alaska Governor in 2006.
Mr McGinniss is understood to have quoted a family friend who alleged that Todd also used cocaine and “was on the end of the straw of plenty”.
Mrs Palin's life has been under the microscope for three years but the claims will be the first such allegations by a serious author, and will be seized on by her enemies.
The allegations fly in the face of her well documented conservative family values and anti-drugs stance and could irreversibly damage her political career and any aspirations of running for the White House. Mrs Palin has not responded publicly so far.
Mr McGinniss, 67, is best known for his book The Selling of the President about Richard Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign.
The author rented a house next to the Palin family's lakeside home in Wasilla, Alaska, for several months while he completed The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, prompting Mrs Palin to furiously accuse him of planning to spy on her family.
The contents of the book are based on interviews with around 200 of her present and former associates.
Anticipation of its release has been heightened by a series of cartoons by Garry Trudeau, the American Doonesbury cartoonist, who has based several recent strips around its disclosures.
He names sources including Gary Wheeler, Mrs Palin’s former head of security and her former chief of staff, Mike Tibbles.
One of his strips reportedly claims that 20 ethnic minority staff were fired because “Sarah just isn’t comfortable in the presence of dark-skinned people”.
Mr McGinniss’s agent would not comment on the National Enquirer’s claims but said the magazine “often gets these reports right”.
By Nick Allen taken from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/sarah-palin/8764021/Sarah-Palin-accused-of-taking-cocaine-in-new-book.html
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