Rapper Snoop Dogg was arrested this weekend in Texas for possession of marijuana, after a drug-sniffing dog smelled the illicit substance aboard his tour bus.
Snoop Dogg’s bus was stopped at the Sierra Blanca border patrol checkpoint when the drug-sniffing dog alerted officers to a scent emanating from a trash can in the back. When officers conducted a search, they discovered a prescription bottle with several joints in it. Snoop Dogg claimed responsibility for the container and less than half an ounce of marijuana in it.
Snoop was issued a citation for misdemeanor drug possession, and was released. But if convicted on the drug charge, he could face up to 180 days in jail.
Interestingly, the Sierra Blanca border checkpoint is the exact same place where Willie Nelson was arrested for drug possession in 2010. Snoop Dogg was quick to defend Nelson in the incident.
“Man, they better be leaving Willie the (bleep) alone,” Snoop Dogg said at the time. “Willie Nelson is a legend. Y’all sometimes need to back off certain people, have a certain amount of respect for your elders. Give the man respect.”
This is not the first drug arrest for Snoop Dogg. He was also arrested on drug charges shortly after graduating high school as well as in 1998, 2001, 2006, and 2007.
In 2003, Snoop Dogg surprised the public when he announced that he was quitting smoking pot. However, he gave up his moratorium in 2004.
He later explained to Rolling Stone magazine, “I’d just gotten into heavily coaching [youth] football and I saw me comin’ to practice smellin’ like weed, my vision half-blurred and me too relaxed, and the parents lookin’ at me like Snoop Dogg the gangster. So instead of the parents checkin’ me sayin’, ‘Hey, Snoop, you smell like weed, why you comin’ to practice high?,’ I took it out of my game so none of the parents would get at me foul, and they’d let me coach. I did it for two, three months.”