marijuana

Dec. 18 (UPI) — A Romanian court on Thursday sentenced American rapper Wiz Khalifa to nine months in prison for using marijuana during a music festival last year.

Citing local news outlets Agerpres and CanCan, USA Today reported the Constanța Court of Appeal issued the final ruling for “committing the crime of possession of high-risk drugs, without right, for own consumption.

The ruling by the appellate court came after the country’s prosecutor’s office — DIICOT Constanța Territorial Service — appealed an earlier sentence that saw Khalifa fined about $829.

The court said it strengthened the punishment because Khalifa sent “a message of normalization of illegal conduct” and encouraged “drug use among young people.”

The court called his actions “ostentatious.”

Sources close to the situation told TMZ that the rapper’s lawyers are appealing the sentence.

Khalifa was sentenced in absentia, and it’s unclear if officials in Romania will seek to have Khalifa extradited to serve his sentence.

Romanian criminal expert Vlad Zaha told the BBC that there’s little chance the United States would extradite Khalifa. He described the sentence as “unusually harsh.”

“Given the defendant’s wealth and connections, Romania’s lack of real negotiating power on extradition, and the legal and political status of cannabis in the U.S., it is highly unlikely that Wiz Khalifa will be sent to serve a prison sentence in Constanța, even though a formal judicial request will be submitted to the United States,” Zaha said.

Khalifa was briefly detained in July 2024 after he smoked marijuana during his set at the Beach Please! Festival.

The musician addressed his arrest in a post on X after his release from custody.

“Last night’s show was amazing. I didn’t mean any disrespect to the country of Romania by lighting up onstage,” he wrote. “They were very respectful and let me go. I’ll be back soon. But without a big … joint next time.”

The executive order calls on the US attorney general to expedite federal reclassification, creating fewer barriers for studies.

United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to federally reclassify marijuana as less dangerous.

The move on Thursday requires Attorney General Pam Bondi to expedite the process under the Drug Enforcement Administration for reclassifying marijuana.

In the US, drugs and other chemical substances are divided into a five-tier classification system, with Schedule I representing the most restricted tier and Schedule V the least.

Marijuana was previously in the Schedule I category, where it was classed alongside potent narcotics like heroin and LSD. With Thursday’s order, it would be fast-tracked down to Schedule III, in a class with ketamine and anabolic steroids.

Trump said the change “is not the legalisation” of marijuana, and he added that it “in no way sanctions its use as a recreational drug”.

The change, however, will make it easier to conduct research on marijuana, as studies on Schedule III drugs require far less approval than for Schedule I substances.

Speaking earlier in the week, Trump told reporters the change was popular “because it leads to tremendous amounts of research that can’t be done unless you reclassify, so we are looking at that very strongly”.

The change is in line with several states that have moved to legalise marijuana for both medical and recreational use. That has created a patchwork of state-level regulations at odds with federal law, wherein marijuana remains illegal.

Former US President Joe Biden had taken several steps to lessen federal penalties related to marijuana, including a mass pardon for those handed harsh sentences for simple possession.

Such convictions had disproportionately affected minority communities and fuelled mass incarceration in the US.

The Biden administration had also begun the process of reclassifying marijuana to Schedule III, but the effort was not completed before the Democratic president left office in January.

Trump has faced some pushback from within his party about the classification shift. Earlier this year, 20 Republican senators signed a letter urging the president to keep the more severe restrictions.

The group argued that marijuana continues to be dangerous and that a shift would “undermine your strong efforts to Make America Great Again”, a reference to Trump’s campaign slogan.

Meanwhile, public support for legalising marijuana for recreational use has nearly doubled in recent years, increasing from 36 percent support in 2005 to 68 percent in 2024, according to Gallup polls.