United Kingdom, March 1 -- Vinnie Jones spent his youth training buzzards instead of dabbling with drugs.

The 59-year-old footballer-turned-actor has admitted he's never tried any illegal substances - declaring there was "no cocaine" when he was a kid - so Vinnie's younger years growing up in Hertfordshire, England were focused on the local wildlife.

He told the Guardian newspaper: "When I tell people I've never taken a drug in my life, they're like, 'What?' But, as youngsters, it wasn't our way. There was no ... cocaine and stuff like that.

"Our way of getting high was finding a bird's nest or getting a ferret that didn't bite your hand off. Our hard drug was training a buzzard."

Vinnie went on to insist he is hoping to shed his "mea...