TROUBLED STAR George Michael has defended his cannabis use and claimed the world "would be a much easier place to live in" if more people smoked marijuana.

The singer - who earlier this month pleaded guilty to driving while unfit through drugs after being found slumped over the wheel of his car in London - made the comments during a television interview last night.

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 northwest London on May 30.

Michael also praised the benefits of marijuana, despite it being linked to depression and schizophrenia.

"I think my generation were taught that it was OK, especially as a musician, to speak your mind and we are living in a time when it's not OK," said the star, who appeared on ITV1's South Bank Show last year smoking a joint.

"People are trying, in an effort to return to family values, to pretend that some of the things that happened between 1960 and 1985 didn't happen, and one of those things was basically the introduction into the culture of marijuana.

"We could sit here with any number of policemen and doctors and they would all tell you if everybody who had a dependence on alcohol changed their mind and had a dependence on weed, the world would be a much easier place to live in."

The 43-year-old also revealed he is considering quitting the UK to escape ongoing negative publicity.

Michael has hit the headlines on a number of occasions in recent years, with a Sunday newspaper alleging last July that it had caught him cruising for gay sex at London's notorious Hampstead Heath. Only days later the singer called Channel 4's Richard And Judy Show to defend his lifestyle, prompting gay activists to warn of the risks of no-strings sex.

He said: "Because of the response of other people to this kind of media coverage I've been having, I have started thinking for the first time in my life that actually I shouldn't be living here.

"I think the honest truth is there are places I could live and still be able to visit home, where I would not have to worry about this constant surveillance almost, and I have got to think seriously about whether or not my love for my country is keeping me somewhere which is not good for me."

However, he joked that his sex life was "worth" the headlines.

"Being in the paper, I promise you, is not the bad bit," he said.

"And believe me, I think that the sex I have is worth being in the paper for!"