Madonna has risked the wrath of anti-drugs campaigners by gushing about the "wonderful" high she felt when she was given opiates during an emergency trip to hospital.

The star was given morphine to ease her pain after she suffered horrendous injuries including cracked ribs and a broken collar bone when she fell from a horse while celebrating her birthday at her then-home in the U.K. in 2005.

The Material Girl, who also had opiates when she gave birth to daughter Lourdes and son Rocco by Caesarean section, has now opened up about her experiences with drugs in a new interview, and she has courted controversy by describing how good she felt while high on morphine.

She tells rock magazine Mojo, "I have to say the best experience I've ever had was when I had to take morphine in a hospital, when I had two Caesareans. Oh and also I fell off a horse and broke 10 bones and I got morphine then too, and, well, that's just a wonderful feeling. But then after 24 hours, the nurses stop giving it to you and the pain comes crashing back in.

"So that's probably the nicest thing I've ever experienced drug-wise. That was doctor's orders... but I could see how people would get addicted to heroin. Deadly."