May 13, 2008 10:21

Pete Doherty: 'I cheated drugs test on probation'

Babyshambles star says prison cleaned him up

Photo Gallery: Pete Doherty
Photo: Jacob Perlmutter

Pete Doherty has admitted that he cheated drugs tests before he was incarcerated in Wormwood Scrubs prison recently for breaching probation.

However, contrary to tabloid newspaper reports today (May 13), the singer/guitarist explained that he did not cheat on tests when in jail. He legitimately received a certificate indicating he was free of drugs.

Speaking about a period shortly before he was in jail Doherty told NME.COM: "I was pretty much back into the [heroin] cycle. I was banging it. The only time I tested clean was when I used someone else's piss. It was a fair cop [going to jail for breaching probation], really."

Doherty explained that he was put on a drug treatment programme in jail where he received heroin replacement drug Sebutex, which he stopped taking two-and-a-half weeks before being released from jail.

He said that reports that he took heroin in jail were "complete rubbish", and that he wished the prison had reacted to newspaper reports. "It's their policy to ignore them rather than acknowledge them [newspaper reports]," he said. "I kind of wish they'd said something.

"I can't go back to that [using drugs]. I don't think I've ever been healthier."

Pete Doherty appears on the cover of the new issue of NME, out today (May 13) in London and nationwide tomorrow (May 14). Doherty gives an exclusive interview to NME, complete with excerpts from his prison diary.