Pete Doherty has confessed that it would probably take the loss of a hand or his sex drive to encourage him to kick his drugs habit.

The Libertines and Babyshambles man has had a long association with drugs and it seems it isn't about to end anytime soon.

Speaking in a new interview with NME, Doherty confirmed that he is still using heroin and suggested that he would have to take a fall before giving up the habit. He said:

"I don't think it's possible to sustain a healthy, for want of a better word, cocaine and heroin dependency, and then call yourself healthy by any stretch of the imagination. You're a fool unto yourself if you think that. Getting over 30...it's reached a point now where there's no way round it. It's like, either curb it or stop it, or lose your health."

The singer added: "To get better you have to get worse. When I stop smoking crack, which I have done recently – I am smoking a lot less – my lungs, all of a sudden, start churning out all this horrible shit. Which, while you're smoking you don't get the chance to do. It's almost that the first thing about giving up drugs is to descend into a pitched toe-to-toe street fight with your health."

When asked what would force him to quit drugs, Doherty replied: "Probably my sex drive will have to go. Or I'll have to lose a hand."