Stuff Stoners Like |
Wiz Khalifa tweeted “Waken… baken… wrist still achin” the morning after his marijuana bust at East Carolina University. All charges against the rapper have now been dismissed. |
Rap star Wiz Khalifa has been cleared of felony marijuana charges stemming from his arrest in North Carolina late last year.
On Wednesday, Pitt County District Attorney Clark Everett dropped a felony “drug trafficking” charge against Khalifa, who was arrested on November 8, 2010 after a show on the campus of East Carolina University when police discovered marijuana on his tour bus, reports James Montgomery at MTV.
Khalifa and nine members of his entourage were charged with trafficking, maintaining a vehicle for “sale or storage” of marijuana, and a misdemeanor charge of “drug paraphernalia” possession.
The trafficking charges were in error, according to D.A. Everett, because the amount of cannabis confiscated on the tour bus was 58 grams, only slightly more than two ounces, reports the Greenville Daily Reflector. For marijuana trafficking charges to stick in North Carolina, the threshold is 10 pounds.
There were 10 people in Wiz’s tour bus, according to Everett, and the star paid a “substantial premium fee” to a bail bondsman for covering the $300,000 bond for himself and all members of his entourage so everyone could leave immediately.
Billboard.com |
Wiz’s mugshot from November 2010 |
All charges against Pittsburgh-based Khalifa and six others were dismissed when three members of the entourage claimed the marijuana was theirs and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor possession during an August 11 hearing, according to Everett.
Each of the three who took the fall paid a $1,000 fine and court costs.
“The magistrate or someone at that office must have misread the statute,” the D.A. claimed. “We discovered the error maybe two hours after Thomaz paid the bondsman’s premium and left. Because of that, it was a high price he paid for bringing the drug onto the campus. Had he remained to discover the error, he would not have been bonded so high, probably $1,000,” Everett claimed.
Khalifa, 22, whose given name is Cameron Jibril Thomaz, features marijuana as a central theme of his performances. One of his CDs is called Rolling Papers and he has a hit single named “Roll Up.”
“Certainly, he regrets the position in which he found himself in,” said Wiz’s lawyer, Mark Owen III. (Classy — a numbered lawyer!)
Wiz, who allegedly smokes $10,000 worth of marijuana a month, according to Stuff Stoners Like, had been warned not to bring any weed onto the ECU campus, university officials claimed. But his attorney said the school knew how Wiz rolled when they booked him.
“He had to pay a high price for that, in a lot of ways,” Owen said. “Khalifa’s preferences and musical expression existed before his appearance in Greenville. Marijuana is a large part of his persona.
“I find it ironic that East Carolina knowingly asked him to come and then chose to take their actions, justified or not under the law,” Owen said. “If you have a problem with cholesterol and high blood pressure, you don’t ask (a barbecue restaurant) to cater your lunch. That’s just a country boy’s observation.”