This career criminal went on a raiding spree merely days after his release from jail. His recent activities include breaking into the home of an 88-year-old victim and slashing the tires of a witness’s car in revenge for her calling the police.

When arrested, Craig did own up to a long list of crimes he had committed to fund his expensive drug habit. His criminal record, not surprisingly, goes back to when he was a boy. He received a sentence of three years in jail for the burglary of the 88-year-old woman’s home and the tire damage.

The judge in Craig’s case told him he had an appalling criminal record. "You know that these offenses are so serious only a custodial sentence can be imposed for them," he was quoted in the Burnely Express.

Craig had also been responsible for break-ins at Blessed Trinity College, helping himself to at least three overhead projectors. Craig owned up to three of the break-ins. He was found in a raid of a house and when interviewed, made a full confession to his crimes.

On November 10th, Craig had been released from custody for other drug-related crimes and within days was breaking the law again to support his habit. At his point of arrest, he had 98 previous convictions, had breached court orders and had qualified for a minimum of three years behind bards as a “three-strike” burglar.

Philip Holden, defense attorney said: "His problem, of course, is drugs, and his good intentions seem to lapse very quickly after release. There is a glimmer of hope for the future if he can rid himself of his drug addiction."
 

Opioids are easily abused as they produce a sense of well-being or a high that makes the user feel as if they have achieved a high. The problem is that users continue to seek this high and addiction can develop while an individual also puts themselves at risk of accidental overdose.

To help try and curb this use and abuse, the United States Food and Drug Administration last year ordered several pharmaceutical companies to develop plans to help reduce inappropriate use.

While such efforts may help this growing epidemic, the very thing that makes the drugs work on reducing pain is also what leads to the addiction. Opioids work by attaching to specific receptors in the brain and blocking the perception of pain. Over time and long-term use, the drugs can cause physical and chemical changes in the brain’s pathways.

"Somewhere between 5 and 10% of people who take opioids regularly become addicted," said Dr. Nora Volkow in the LA Times. Dr. Volkow is director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health.

Aside from the problems of addiction, the risk of accidental overdose is very high with opioids. When too much of the drug is taken, breathing can slow and even stop completely. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fatal poisonings that involve these medications more than tripled from 1999 through 2006 from 4,000 to more than 13,500.

Data from the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health shows that more than 5 million Americans are currently using pain-relieving medications such as Vicodin, OxyContin and Percocet for non medical reasons.
 

When asked about losing his driver’s license in 2007 after he was found slumped at the steering wheel, he said: "For all the doctored pictures, every single breathalyzer test I’ve taken in my life has read 0.0, and I’ve never failed a sobriety test. I always preface this with, ‘I deserved to lose my license, I needed to lose my license.’" He admits that he had taken drugs that night, but insists he was capable of driving.

“I had a problem with sleeping pills for about a year and a half, and I (messed) up really badly. I got in the car twice when I’d forgotten I’d already downed something to try to get me to sleep. It doesn’t matter that it wasn’t deliberate—ultimately, I did it a second time, and I could have killed somebody. But the fact remains I was never accused of driving under the influence. I got done for exhaustion and sleeping pills,” he said.

Michael used to tell people that the worst thing about the stories in the papers was that 90 percent of them were true. Now, he says, hardly any are, and that the media takes advantage of him because they know he can’t afford to sue.

The most worrying report was that when he was arrested for engaging in anonymous sex with a man in a public restroom (referred to as “cottaging”), he was charged with possession of crack cocaine. When asked if he ever smoked crack, he defiantly said no and then admitted that he was smoking the drug on that occasion when pressed by Hattenstone.

"I mean, I’ve done different things at different times that I shouldn’t have done, once or twice, you know,” he admitted, adding, “I’m feeling more parental by the second.”

A few months ago Michael was involved in a serious accident with a truck. "He came into my lane, and I had nowhere to go and ended up being battered between him and the central reservation, and I have to say it’s amazing that I’m alive."

The accident made him reassess things. "If that juggernaut had killed me, I think I’d be perfectly happy with the amount of quality music I have left in the world. My ego is sated."

Hattenstone told Michael that the common perception is that Michael sleeps late, gets high, and goes cruising. "The handful of times a year it’s bloody warm enough, I’ll do it,” the singer admits. “I’ll do it on a nice summer evening. Quite often there are campfires up there. It’s a much nicer place to get some quick and honest sex than standing in a bar, (high on Ecstasy), shouting at somebody and hoping they want the same thing as you do in bed.”

Returning to his typical day, he said, "I normally get up about 10 am, my PA will bring me a Starbucks, I’ll have a look at my emails. At the moment I’ve got nothing that pressurized other than keeping an eye on the video they’re making for the Christmas single. Then, if I’m in the mood, I’ll come up to the office in Highgate, do some work, writing, backing tracks or whatever. Come home. Kenny (his boyfriend) will be here, the dogs are here. Maybe eat locally, hang out, and then probably go off and have a shag or have someone come here and have a shag." Laughing, he added, “It’s not typical—that’s probably a couple times a week."

Over the past few years, a number of stars have said they fear for Michael—notably Elton John, who is one of Michael’s heroes. "Elton lives on that. He will not be happy until I bang on his door in the middle of the night saying, ‘Please, please, help me, Elton. Take me to rehab.’ It’s not going to happen,” Michael responded, adding, “Look, if people choose to believe that I’m sitting here in my ivory tower, Howard Hughes-ing myself with long fingernails and loads of drugs, then I can’t do anything about that, can I?"

Michael recently received an advance from HarperCollins for his autobiography, but he is going to give it back, as he said the timing isn’t right and that he needs to make more progress before he can write well about himself. "There are things I need to resolve. And I think I’ll be a much better writer when I’ve got through those things. But it’s great to know that at 46 I’m still very much a changing person."

When asked if he likes the way he’s changed, he responded, “Well, yeah, thank Christ. Most visible traces of self-loathing have gone…I’m surprised that I’ve survived my own dysfunction, really."