Friend says Michael addicted to pot

LONDON, April 19 (UPI) -- A friend of former Wham! frontman George Michael says the one-time British pop star's career is literally going up in smoke.

"Drugs have turned him into a stoned waster and made him depressed," Toby Burke, who sang with Michael on the 1997 single "Waltz Away Dreaming," told Wednesday's Mirror. "Dope is his poison."

Burke told the newspaper Michael smokes 20 strong marijuana joints a day.

"Dope destroyed his will to work," he said. "When you smoke as much as George has done you simply cease to function. Cannabis has wrecked his career. All that dope put paid to it."

Even back in his heyday, George would arrive to the recording studio in a stoned stupor, Burke said.

Often he walked out without having sung a note because he was too stoned to work, Toby claimed, adding he would often leave the studio because he was too stoned to sing.

George was questioned Tuesday by London police for allegedly slamming into three parked cars during the weekend, the Mirror noted. He is expected to answer questions about the incident for a TV audience Saturday on Michael Parkinson's talk show.