Rolling Stones rocker Keith Richards refused to turn his back on drugs completely after a number of brushes with death - he still smokes marijuana "all the damn time".

The guitarist was addicted to heroin at the height of the hellraising band’s 1970s heyday.

But his bad experiences haven’t deterred him from maintaining one last illegal vice: "People thought I was going to die. I never did - as you can see. The drugs? Oh yeah, they were great.

"Drugs now - it’s a very dodgy subject. I smoke my head off. I smoke weed all the damn time.

"There, you’ve got it. But that’s my benign weed. That’s all I take, that’s all I do. But I do smoke - and I’ve got some really good hash."

And Richards has a grudge with officials who have banned smoking in public spaces in Britain, Ireland, California and New York: "This worldwide smoking ban is draconian, socially, politically-correct bullshit. They’ll get over it. It’s like Prohibition - they tried to stop booze once. Ha! Look what happened. It ruined America."