Image via Complex Original
Getting arrested for smoking marijuana in a moving vehicle or allowing a police officer to enter a home during a raging party is a move most people would reserve for amateurs. However, since the beginning of celebrity, the rich and famous have been caught red handed by the law for drug possession. They may have better lawyers, but we've heard the Deadhead falling asleep in the back of the class come up with better stories than the excuses some celebrities come up with for their drug use. The following is a history of celebrities getting caught with drugs.
Louis Armstrong
Year: 1930
Drug caught with: Marijuana
Consequence: Lung power is needed to play the trumpet that well, right? The legendary jazz musician was arrested while smoking outside The Cotton Club in California with drummer Vic Berton in 1930. Armstrong and Berton were said to have laughed through their entire jail stint, until the next morning when they were charged by California police with possession of marijuana and sentenced to six months in prison and a $1,000 fine each. The charges were later said to be dropped due to the corruption, but in this case, it was the life-saving connection between Prohibition-era club-owners and the police.
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Marilyn Monroe
Year: 1950s
Drug caught with: Marijuana
Consequences: An old lady, who prefers to remain anonymous, found an old video in her attic of a "girls' night in" that she had with Marilyn Monroe and a few of her friends in which they puff-puff-passed a joint. You can see the video footage yourself and decide whether or not it was actually a joint, but the owner of the video claims that she rolled it herself and there was definitely marijuana in it.
Everyone knows of Monroe's past with substances and the consequences that she had to deal with, but this footage kind of gives Monroe a whole different chill side to her that we haven't seen before.
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John Lennon
Year: 1968
Drug caught with: Marijuana
Consequence: The legendary Beatle's home was raided in 1968 when Detective Norman Pilcher, an anti-drug zealot, went around London with warrants to search the homes of famous celebrities whom he accused of popularizing drugs. After being read a warrant through the barred windows of his home, Lennon was charged with possessing 200 grams of hashish and half a gram of morphine. He pleaded guilty of the charge in order to save Yoko from being deported and was charged with a fine of 150 pounds.
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Jimi Hendrix
Year: 1969
Drug caught with: Allegedly Heroin
Consequence: The legendary guitarist and singer was arrested at Toronto International Airport after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police discovered six small bags of white powder in a glass bottle at the top of Hendrix's suitcase. Hendrix was detained and held for $10,000 bail. The "Purple Haze" musician claimed someone had slipped the bottle into his bag, and that he was set up by "the Mounties" who waited for Hendrix at the Toronto International Airport customs gate and searched his belongings outside the means of police protocol. FYI: Searches are supposed to be done outside of the public view for respect of privacy of the accused.
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President Barack Obama
Year: Early 1970s
Drug caught with: Marijuana
Consequences: None, he's the President of the United States of America! Fun fact: President Obama made up a few smoking tricks with his stoner clique, the "Choom Gang," in high school. One of them included hot-boxing in their van and then inhaling the remains of the smoke near the ceiling when the joint was finished.
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Notorious B.I.G.
Year: 1996
Drug caught with: Marijuana
Consequence: The '90s rap icon was arrested at his home in Teaneck, New Jersey when cops knocked on his door to ask him to move his car, which was parked illegally, and smelled marijuana coming from inside the home. When they entered Biggie's home, New Jersey police found a number of unregistered weapons and 50 grams of pot. The "Big Poppa" rapper was released on $150,000 bail. However, charges were never officially made following the 1997 sudden death of the rapper.
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Kate Moss
Year: 2005
Drug caught with: Cocaine
Consequence: In 2005 The Daily Mirror, an UK gossip magazine, published a front cover photo of the iconic super model cutting up lines and snorting cocaine during a BabyShambles recording session. The photos cost her over $4 million, when H&M and Burberry dropped Moss for her alleged drug use. However, the day after the photos were published, Chanel announced they would be renewing their contract with Kate, stating it had nothing to do with the scandal, which if anything boosted her career.
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Willie Nelson
Year: 2006
Drug caught with: Marijuana, narcotic mushrooms
Consequence: You're never too old to get in trouble with the law. At 73 years old, the country singer was arrested at a Louisiana highway traffic stop after officers claimed they smelt marijuana coming from his tour bus. After searching the bus, officers discovered one and a half pounds of weed and three ounces of narcotic mushrooms. The singer and four other passengers were charged with a misdemeanor citation for the possession of the drugs. Authorities claimed that had the entire possession been charged on Nelson himself, he could have faced felony charges.
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Nicole Richie
Year: 2006
Drug caught with: Marijuana, painkillers
Consequence: After entering the State Route 134 in California onto oncoming traffic, Richie was pulled over by California police and asked to take a sobriety test. The Simple Life reality star failed and was then put under arrest. She later confessed to the officers that she had smoked a little bit of weed earlier that day, and took a Vicodin to treat severe menstrual cramps. She was booked for four days in jail, but only served 82 hours of the sentence due to the overcrowding in the L.A. jail.
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Lindsay Lohan
Year: 2007
Drug caught with: Allegedly heroin
Consequence: We all learned the hard way that if you're going to do something bad, don't document it through pictures and post it online. Apparently LiLo didn't get the message, as pictures of the Mean Girls actress were released depicting her with what appears to be a tourniquet and a syringe, which we can only assume had some sort of controlled substance in it.
The photos were posted just a few hours after Lohan was released from a 14-hour jail stint. Lindsay was booked into Lynwood jail after failing two drug tests while on probation. Unfortunately for Lohan, this story never seems to end.
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Mischa Barton
Year: 2007
Drug caught with: Marijuana
Consequence: Marissa Cooper or Mischa Barton? The former O.C. star's arrest seemed like a scene out of the primetime soap. After police noticed the starlet driving erratically, they pulled Barton over only to find more than they were looking for. Mischa was charged with driving under the influence, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of marijuana. Barton spent about seven hours in jail after being released on bail, was given a probation sentence of three years, ordered to complete a three month education class, and fined $2,000.
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Amy Winehouse
Year: 2007
Drugs caught with: Marijuana
Consequences: Winehouse and her boyfriend were arrested and fined $800 for marijuana possession, which she confessed to, in Norway. She was also not issued a U.S. Visa for a few years because of her engagement with narcotics. Considering she was just too talented, the U.S. handed her a Visa just so she could spread the soul across the pond.
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Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore
Year: 2007
Drug caught with: Marijuana
Consequences: We know that Barrymore has partied for a fair amount of her life and she has gone to rehab twice because of it. She started smoking cigarettes when she was eight, for goodness sake! And Cameron Diaz has been smoking since she was in high school when Snoop Dogg was her drug dealer. But it doesn't count if you're smoking in Hawaii, right?
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Kristen Stewart
Year: 2008
Drug caught with: Marijuana
Consequences: It makes a lot of sense that Stewart, the most awkward actress in Hollywood, smokes this socially debilitating drug. There were no legal consequences for her hitting the bowl, but we are sure that the tween fan base of the Twilight series were unnecessarily concerned for Stewart's health.
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Paris Hilton
Year: 2010
Drug caught with: Marijuana, cocaine
Consequence: The Hilton Hotel heiress was arrested for possession of a controlled substance after officers pulled over a black Escalade which Cy Waits, an American entrepreneur and her boyfriend at the time, was driving. He was suspected of being under the influence. In a stroke of bad luck, the arresting officers saw a bag of cocaine fall out of Hilton's purse while she was searching for lip gloss at the same time the officers were searching the vehicle.
Paris obviously claimed the purse wasn't hers and went on home to tweet, "In bed watching Family Guy. Love this show! So hilarious! :) I love Stewie's accent." Ironically, Twitter was also the case's best detective, proving that the purse she claimed wasn't hers actually was, when she tweeted earlier that summer, "Love my new Chanel purse I got today:)" accompanied by a picture of the incriminating purse.
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Wiz Khalifa
Year: 2010
Drug caught with: Marijuana
Consequence: Police officers at East Carolina University, where the rapper was performing, ordered Khalifa to allow them access to his tour bus after smelling marijuana coming from the vehicle. When the "Black and Yellow" rapper allowed the search, officers found two ounces of weed. Wiz was arrested for one felony count of trafficking in marijuana, one felony count of maintaining a dwelling/vehicle/place for the sale or storage of marijuana, and one misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia. Khalifa was released on $300,000 bail.
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Soulja Boy
Year: 2011
Drug caught with: Marijuana
Consequence: The "Crank That" rapper was charged with felony possession charges after police pulled him over in Georgia due to his tail light being out. When the 21-year-old pulled over, cops searched the car after smelling marijuana. Cops found three firearms, five ounces of weed, and $46,000 in cash.
Soulja Boy, whose real name is DeAndre Cortez Way, and the four other passengers in the car were charged with felony possession of marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.
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Snoop Lion
Year: 2012
Drug caught with: Marijuana
Consequence: You would think there is some sort of celebrity network system where they would warn one another of drug busting hot spots! The west coast rapper faced minor drug charges after the same Texas border police who arrested Willie Nelson found several rolled joints, and a few other containers of weed on his tour bus. In all, the border agent found about 0.13 pounds of marijuana in the vehicle.
We don't know what we are more surprised by: the fact that this is one of the few times Snoop has been arrested for weed, or that they only found a small stash of the substance on the dude whose entire M.O. is marijuana.
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Lady Gaga
Year: 2012
Drug caught with: Marijuana
Consequences: Lady Gaga has been quite vocal about her love for pot. She took advantage of Amsterdam's weed friendly laws and smoked a humongous joint on stage. So, there were literally no consequences.
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Rihanna
Year: 2013
Drug caught with: Marijuana
Consequence: Rihanna truly is unapologetic, and that includes to the Canadian border police. The singer's 10 tour buses were allegedly stopped and searched at the Ambassador Bridge, which separates Canada and Detroit, after police smelled marijuana coming from one of the buses. Cops brought in drug dogs, but only found one passenger with a small amount of weed on them. While the member of her entourage was ticketed with a civil penalty, Rihanna was able to skip out on all the drama. However, judging from her Instagram account, we don't think the Canadian police dogs were far off the trail.
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Miley Cyrus
Year: 2013
Drug caught with: Marijuana
Consequences: Smiley Cyrus has been known for dabbling in weed related activities since her "salvia" bong incident in 2010, but she continues to partake in the ganja lifestyle. Although she never faced jailtime, she has gotten a lot of backlash from her teeny bopper fans from her Hannah Montana days, and even Billy Ray Cyrus has said that she was beyond his control.
Cyrus recently put out a song with Snoop Lion called "Heartbreaks and Ashtrays," so we are pretty sure she is not going to give up the recreational drug anytime soon.
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2 Chainz
Year: 2013
Drug caught with: Marijuana
Consequence: The "Spend It" rapper was pulled over for speeding outside of Maryland University, where the rapper was perfoming. Officers searched the car after smelling marijuana coming from the inside of the vehicle. After finding traces of weed in his backpack, 2 Chainz was arrested for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
2 Chainz faced a $1,000 fine and up to a year in jail. Luckily, he was released on bail, but not before taking a picture with the arresting officers. Later he would go on to tweet "Dam police fucking with a n***a. Locked me up then wanted a picture smh". The Georgia rapper was later acquitted of all drug charges.
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Justin Bieber
Year: 2013
Drug caught with: Marijuana
Consequences: Little Biebs is growing up. He is no longer that kid with the mop on his head and head-to-toe purple sweatsuits. He's 19 now, and smoking blunts on his segway with friends, driving irresponsibly and throwing ragers at his mansion in the private community of Calabasas are part of living that life. In fact, his neighbors are so offended by his weed habits and recklessness that the community board has been in contact with the police to set new rules for the superstar. If we had those crazy, screaming fans and annoying neighbors, we'd be smoking, too.
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Jennifer Lawrence
Year: 2013
Drug caught with: Marijuana
Consequences: A paparazzi caught America's sweetheart smoking in her hotel room in Hawaii, Hollywood's ganja hot-spot. While some actors get plenty of backlash from their fans and the media for meddling with drugs, most people left Lawrence alone because she is just so likeable compared to the fake personalities in Hollywood. She should invite us next time...
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Amanda Bynes
Year: 2013
Drug caught with: Allegedly marijuana
Consequence: The comedic actress was booked in a New York jail cell after the concierge at her apartment building claimed Bynes was smoking a joint in the lobby. After the NYPD arrived and knocked on her door, Amanda allowed them in and then proceeded to throw a bong out the window, which lead to her arrest. Bynes was charged with tampering with physical evidence, reckless endangerment, and criminal possession of marijuana.
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