Louisiana-based rapper Boosie Badazz was charged with two counts of felony drug possession late last week, and could now face more than a year in prison for carrying just 11 grams of cannabis.
According to TMZ, the incredibly harsh charges stemmed from a traffic stop five months ago. In April of this year, Boosie and his bodyguard were driving through Coweta County, Georgia when their car was pulled over by local police. Citing probable cause because the car was “swerving lanes,” cops searched the vehicle and uncovered a baggie containing 11 grams of marijuana, a vape pen with a THC oil cartridge, a loaded firearm, and more than $20,000 in cash.
And while neither Boosie nor his bodyguard, Antonio Allen, were charged with any crimes concerning the gun, the weed charges have stuck. And because the arrests happened in Georgia, Boosie’s smalltime stash of less than a half ounce of pot was enough to lead to multiple felonies.
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Despite city-specific decriminalization in cosmopolitan corners of the state like Atlanta, most of Georgia is still subject to the state’s draconian prohibition standards. Cannabis is still viewed in the same light as drugs like heroin, fentanyl, and methamphetamine throughout the South.
Over the past two years alone, multiple high-profile cannabis arrests have led cannabis advocacy activists to hone in on the Peach State’s outdated pot laws. In late 2017, a football player at the University of Georgia was arrested for possessing less than one gram of marijuana. And in 2018, a group of more than 70 teenagers were rounded up and mass arrested after police found one single bag of weed at an unsupervised house party.
In a recent accounting of US medical marijuana programs from the advocacy group Americans for Safe Access, researchers awarded Georgia’s legal cannabis efforts (or lack thereof) a failing grade.
As for Boosie, the rapper will now return to Coweta County after five months on bond to face the trumped up felony charges, and could spend as much as one year in prison. Earlier in his career, Boosie was convicted on drug charges in his home state of Louisiana and served five years in jail.
Despite those hardships, Boosie has kept his name in the industry and released chart-topping hits whenever free. Let’s just hope he’s able to stay in the booth and out of jail for the rest of 2019 and years to come.
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