Last Thursday, Pete Doherty told reporters he was "in mourning" for his drug-addled past. By Friday, his bereavement period had come to a screeching halt.
The Babyshambles frontman has apologized to fans, doctors, judges and his dwindling base of well-wishers for suffering a relapse that, in typical Doherty fashion, was captured on camera phone and posted to the Website of Britain's Sun newspaper.
Doherty called his latest high-profile relapse "a stupid, stupid action for which I feel only shame."
"Peter sadly relapsed last week and is now looking to check himself back in to a rehab clinic so that he can try to continue his hitherto excellent attempts he had made to break free of heroin," his record label, EMI, said in a statement. "He realizes he has not only let himself down but has let down those who trusted and encouraged his efforts."
The footage, which shows the 28-year-old rocker cooking what appears to be heroin on a spoon before injecting it into his tattoo-filled arm, was purported to have been taken on Friday, just hours after Doherty returned to London from performing at MTV's Europe Awards in Munich.
Ironically, his band's performance at the show was heralded by critics as one of the group's tightest in months, with special props going out to a seemingly sharp and more coherent than ever Doherty.
Before the ceremony, the rocker spoke with the British music mag NME, saying he was doing his best to keep clean but was nevertheless "in mourning" for his druggie lifestyle.
"It's hard work," he said. "I think I miss it a bit...I'm in mourning for an armful."
Doherty also perhaps prophetically told the magazine, which was touting its piece with the rocker as his first ever "clean" interview, that while he would do his best to "embrace" keeping sober, "the chances of me not getting arrested once in the next 18 months are quite slim really."
According to EMI, Doherty is "filled with remorse" over his relapse.
"Peter would like to apologize to the medical staff, fans and well-wishers who have helped and encouraged his progress," the company said. "His ongoing rehabilitation was a source of such pride to him that Peter and those closest to him thought that he was close to winning his personal battle with the drug."
It's unclear whose camera phone captured the one-minute, 14-second video of Doherty's relapse, though it was reportedly taken inside his London home. In addition to the video on the Sun's Website, the tabloid published still images from the footage in its print editions.
The emergence of the video and photos comes exactly one week after a London judge revoked Doherty's court-supervised drug treatment and issued him a suspended jail sentence on a series of drug and driving offenses. The judge credited positive progress made by the rocker in her sentence, which included an order for Doherty to complete a 12-month drug treatment plan that required twice-weekly testing and, yet again, no jail time.
"You have made strides, and I hope you will continue in doing so," Judge Janes McIvor said at the Oct. 26 hearing. "I would hate to see you going backward."
It's unclear when Doherty plans on kicking off another stint in rehab, though Babyshambles is still scheduled to embark on a U.K. arena tour Nov. 22.