Wiz Khalifa Sentenced to Nine Months in Romanian Prison Over On-Stage Cannabis Use

Photo courtesy of Wiz Khalifa

American rapper Wiz Khalifa has been sentenced to nine months in prison by a Romanian appeals court after being convicted of drug possession in connection with an on-stage cannabis incident more than a year ago.

What Happened

• The Constanța Court of Appeal in Romania upheld a conviction on drug charges related to an incident at the Beach, Please! music festival in July 2024.

• Prosecutors say Khalifa, whose real name is Cameron Jibril Thomaz, was found with more than 18 grams of cannabis and allegedly smoked on stage during his performance.

• A lower court initially fined him 3,600 Romanian lei (about $830) in April 2025, but prosecutors appealed, seeking a harsher penalty. The nine-month sentence is now final under Romanian law.

  
  

Strict Local Laws vs. Global Perception

Romania maintains some of the strictest drug laws in Europe, and cannabis possession, even for personal use, remains criminalized.

Sentences can range from fines to prison time.

This puts Khalifa in an awkward position: a global figure built on weed-friendly branding facing criminal punishment abroad for the same behavior he’s long normalized in his music and business ventures.

Extradition Uncertain

Khalifa was not in Romania when the sentence was handed down and remains in the United States. It’s unclear whether Romanian authorities will pursue an extradition request to enforce the sentence, particularly given his U.S. citizenship and the legal complexities around cannabis.

A Romanian criminologist quoted in international coverage called the prison term “unusually harsh” and doubted that an extradition effort would succeed.

The Bigger Context

Fans will remember Khalifa publicly apologizing shortly after the 2024 incident, saying he didn’t mean disrespect by lighting up onstage and joking he’d return “without a big ass joint next time.”

But the appeals court disagreed with that laid-back vibe. Judges wrote that his conduct normalized illegal drug use in front of young people and therefore deserved a tougher punishment.

Whether this ends up as a symbolic headline or a real prison stay is still up in the air, but it highlights a strange legal collision: a weed culture icon getting tangled in foreign drug laws that haven’t caught up with global shifts in cannabis norms.