American rapper Wiz Khalifa, born Thomaz Cameron Jibril, has been sentenced to nine months in prison by a Romanian court for smoking cannabis during a performance, officials announced.
The ruling came after an appeals court in Constanța overturned an earlier fine of 3,600 Romanian lei (£619; $829) for drug possession, ordering that the sentence be served in custody. However, the rapper was sentenced in absentia, and there is little expectation that he will serve time in Romania.
The incident occurred at the Beach, Please! Festival in Costinești in July 2024, where police said Khalifa possessed over 18 grams of cannabis and smoked a joint on stage. In a written decision, the judges called the act “ostentatious”, noting that the performance “sent a message of normalization of illegal conduct” and risked encouraging drug use among the festival’s predominantly young audience.
In response, Khalifa took to X (formerly Twitter), stating he did not intend to offend Romania and praised authorities for their respect during the brief questioning after the concert. “I’ll be back soon. But without a big ass joint next time,” he wrote.
Criminologist Vlad Zaha told BBC News that Romania has little chance of securing extradition, given Khalifa’s wealth, U.S. legal protections, and the country’s limited leverage. “It is highly unlikely that Wiz Khalifa will serve a prison sentence in Constanța, even though a formal judicial request will be submitted,” he said.
The rapper, known for hits like Black and Yellow, See You Again, and Young, Wild & Free, frequently posts images of himself smoking cannabis and launched his own marijuana brand in 2016. While recreational and medical cannabis is legal in several U.S. states, it remains illegal under federal law.
