| Photo: StarTrip |
Musician George Michael was charged Wednesday with marijuana possession and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, stemming from an incident last month.
The 47-year-old former Wham! singer reported to a police station in north London’s Camden Town on Wednesday, reports Christopher Brocklebank at PinkNews.
The charges result from an incident when Michael was arrested after driving his Range Rover into a branch of photo developers Snappy Snaps in Hampstead in the early morning hours of July 4. The singer had reportedly been attending the London Gay Pride celebrations the previous night.
| Photo: London Evening Standard |
| Michael fires up a doob on TV in 2006 |
The pop star openly smoked a joint during a television interview in Madrid in 2006, according to the London Evening Standard.
“This is the only drug I’ve ever thought worth taking,” the singer said of cannabis. “This stuff keeps me sane and happy.”
Michael called cannabis “very good for creative people.”
“There’s not another drug in my life that I’m glad I took, but grass,” Michael said.
His arrest comes not long after the end of a two-year driving ban imposed in 2008 after he was caught in a public toilet with crack cocaine and marijuana.
Michael was given 100 hours of community service in 2007 after police found him unconscious at the wheel of his Mercedes.
According to the AP, Michael was “questioned by police after his car hit a tractor-trailer” in 2009, but was released without charges.
| Photo: BigPicturesPhoto.com |
| Michael tokes up on a cruise in March 2010 |
He was once again photographed smoking a joint in March while on a boat cruise, reports the London Daily Mail.
The singer admitted in an interview last year to smoking up to 25 joints a day, but said he had now cut back to only seven or eight a day.
Michael was released on police bail pending his appearance at court in north London on August 24, according to Scotland Yard.
The mercurial singer, who is in a long-term relationship with art dealer Kenny Goss, admitted he was frustrated that people judge him for his drug use and his penchant for casual gay sex.
“People want to see me as tragic with all the cottaging and drug-taking,” he said, according to music-news.com. “I don’t see them as weaknesses any more.”
“It’s just who I am,” Michael said.
“The public think I’m a man on the brink of a breakdown because I fell asleep in my car, I hit a parked car and because I cruise as a gay man,” Michael said in a 2006 interview. But he insisted that far from losing control of his life, “I’m happy with the music I’m making and I’m still loaded,” he said.