George Michael's Challenging Relationship With Weed
This Christmas, we had to say goodbye to George Michael, a great English singer and songwriter who constantly shocked the public in the 1980s and 1990s with his eccentric habits and behavior, including his love of marijuana. Michael was sure that weed kept him “sane and happy,” though he confessed that the drug was not very healthy.
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This legendary singer led an active lifestyle and had had no trouble defending his sexuality, personal life, and reputation in pop-music. Despite all this, Michael's popularity seemed to never fade and continued even when many years had passed after his last top single. The star was also public about his longstanding relationship with cannabis, even when this habit became problematic.
The singer openly advocated for marijuana legalization and was even brave enough to smoke weed during an interview. Michael said that the herb inspired him and provided happy feelings he could not experience in his ordinary life. He confessed of smoking seven joints a day, but later this number increased to 25 joints. This was the time when Michael's diet consisted of only weed and coffee.
However, such intensive cannabis use caused the problem of addiction. Michael claimed that he was “constantly trying” to reduce his pot consumption, underlying at the same time that marijuana legalization would make the world better. The singer was sure that criminal penalties led to more problems than the drug itself.
After scandals with marijuana use, Michael had to prove that he had not been under the influence of weed or alcohol when he met with automobile-related accidents. Nevertheless, Michael was sentenced to prison for eight weeks after he crashed into a photographic shop in London in 2010.
Recognizing his dependence, Michael had reportedly received treatment in a Swiss rehabilitation center in 2015. In the last years of his life, the singer admittedly restrained himself from using marijuana.
According to Michael, the work let him forget about
puffing. He also claimed that weed could destroy the person's
ambitions because of its chilling effect. This notion explains the
fact that during two decades Michael did not produce new songs and
only re-released his old material.
In one of his late interviews, Michael said that with his extraordinary behavior he tried to sabotage his own career. “But my career just seems to right itself like a plastic duck in a bath and, in some ways, I resent that,” he said to the UK Daily Mail.
However, marijuana was not responsible for the tragic event. Though the exact reason for Michael's death remains unknown, there are rumors that in recent years he was addicted to more severe drugs like heroin.
