Wiz Khalifa Sentenced to Nine Months in Romanian Jail

Wiz Khalifa has been sentenced to nine months in a Romanian prison for smoking cannabis on stage during a music festival. The 36-year-old rapper, whose real name is Thomaz Cameron Jibril, admitted to lighting up a joint while performing at the Beach, Please! festival last year in Costinesti, Romania, according to the BBC.

An appeals court in Constanța overturned an earlier fine of 3,600 Romanian lei (£619; $829) for drug possession and instead ruled that Khalifa must serve time in custody. The court criticized the act as sending “a message of normalisation of illegal conduct” and said it could encourage “drug use among young people.”

The judges described the incident as an “ostentatious act”, noting that Khalifa performed in front of a young audience while in possession of cannabis and consumed part of it openly on stage.

Romanian authorities said he had over 18 grams of cannabis and smoked some during the show.

Khalifa, who is ten-time Grammy-nominated, was sentenced in absentia. He has since been performing in the United States, including a recent show with Gunna in California, and shared clips on Twitch and social media. After the festival incident, he posted on X: “They [the authorities] were very respectful and let me go. I’ll be back soon. But without a big a** joint next time.”

Police had briefly questioned him after the concert in July 2024, and prosecutors charged him with possession of “risk drugs” for personal use. Romanian criminologist Vlad Zaha told the BBC that extradition to Romania is highly unlikely.

“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 US, it is highly unlikely that Wiz Khalifa will be sent to serve a prison sentence in Constanța,” Zaha said.

The rapper, famous for hits like Black and Yellow, See You Again, and Young, Wild & Free, is often seen smoking cannabis in public and launched his own marijuana brand in 2016. While cannabis is legal in some U.S. states, it remains illegal under federal law.

This sentencing marks a rare example of a foreign court taking action against a U.S. music star for on-stage drug use, but experts say it is unlikely Khalifa will serve time in Romania.

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