GEORGE MICHAEL BACKS CANNABIS

Troubled star George Michael has revealed he is addicted to
prescription drugs and believes the world would be a better place if
more people smoked cannabis.

He may quit Britain to escape media attention but says of the time he
was caught cruising on Hampstead Heath: "Believe me, I think that the
sex I have is worth being in the paper for!"

And he attributed his erratic behaviour to an attention-seeking and
"self-destructive" impulse brought on by the death of his mother a decade ago.

The singer made a series of startling confessions in an interview
with Michael Parkinson, to be screened on ITV1.

Earlier this month he pleaded guilty to driving while unfit through
drugs after he was found slumped over the wheel of his car in a London street.

Explaining the cause of the incident, ex-Wham! star Michael said: "It
involves prescribed drugs and it involves a dependency on them, and
the tendency to chase one drug with another because of side effects,"
adding that he could not say more because legal proceedings are still
ongoing. He will be sentenced at Brent Magistrates' Court in
north-west London on May 30.

The arrest was one of a string of bizarre episodes in recent years
which have left fans worried for the 43-year-old star's wellbeing.

Asked by Parkinson if his "childish behaviour" was a bid to court
publicity, Michael admitted: "Well, I have to ask myself, don't I?"

He blamed his behaviour on the death of his beloved mother, Lesley,
in 1997, saying: "I know I have a very self-destructive tendency
since my mother died, I have got to be honest. That has kind of made
itself clear in other ways.

"I think there has to be some element in that in why I was basically
not taking care of myself, really."