Doherty pleaded guilty to seven separate drugs charges

The Babyshambles frontman, who was handed a 12-month community order last week, rejected criticisms that the punishment was too lenient.

Doherty told Channel 4 News that he was "not that much of a junkie anyway" and was attending rehabilitation meetings.

Extracts of Doherty's prison diary were printed in The Guardian on Saturday.

The singer also said in the interview that his sentence was "a lot to be going on with".

"It's not going to be instant and easy but I'm getting an anti-heroin implant," he said.

"I've just been helped. I'm not going to make light of the fact that I've been given a great chance, and take crack and heroin.

'Stronger'

"If I was not famous then I would not have the extremes, the corruptness and fortune that led me there in the first place," added Doherty.

The 26-year-old wrote in his prison diary: "Even life without drugs has gotta be better than this malarkey."

He also spoke of feeling "like a freak show" as other prisoners screamed his name "like apes" at his cell door.

The Guardian has made a donation to the Prison Reform Trust for printing the diary, and stressed that Doherty did not receive any payment for having his work published.

Doherty also wrote that he would come out of prison "fitter and stronger than in a long time", and revealed he had a television set in his cell.

Pete Doherty and Kate Moss's liaison caused a media frenzy

He added he was resigned to the notion that drugs were "eating away at your money, your love and your life".

Doherty, who pleaded guilty to seven counts of drug possession, was held in Pentonville Prison in London for 13 nights.

He was released last Wednesday when he was sentenced to the community order at Ealing Magistrates' Court in west London.

Doherty was held in custody from 26 January when he was arrested by plainclothes police officers in Whitechapel, east London.

The singer was also ordered to take part in a drugs rehabilitation programme and warned that he would face further imprisonment if he breached the terms imposed by the court.

Doherty was until recently linked with the model Kate Moss, but refused to divulge whether he had been in contact with her since she returned to the UK.