Long before marijuana became legal in several U.S. states, getting caught with it meant court dates, jail time, fines, and front-page photographs. For celebrities, the arrests played out in full public view. The charges ranged from simple possession to smuggling, and the names attached to them read like a greatest hits list of 20th-century music and film.
The Early Cases
Robert Mitchum was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars when he was arrested in 1948 in Los Angeles alongside actress Lila Leeds on charges of conspiracy to possess marijuana. On January 10, 1949, both were convicted. A month later, on February 9th, they were sentenced to 60 days in jail. For Mitchum, the arrest was career-threatening at a time when studios controlled public image tightly. He served his time and returned to work.
Burlesque dancer Candy Barr turned herself in to the Bexar County Sheriff in San Antonio, Texas, on December 3, 1959, and went directly behind bars. Ray Charles sat in Indianapolis Municipal Court on January 9, 1962, during preliminary hearings on narcotics charges filed against him the previous November.
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The 1960s: Rock Stars and Raids
The second half of the 1960s produced a wave of high-profile drug arrests that swept through the music world on both sides of the Atlantic.
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards appeared at Chichester court on May 10, 1967, after being charged with drug possession. Richards faced a separate charge of permitting his premises to be used for smoking marijuana and stood trial on June 27, 1967. Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones appeared at a London magistrates court on May 11, 1967, charged with possessing 50 grains of cannabis resin.
Donovan — the British folk singer — appeared at Marylebone Court in London charged with possessing cannabis alongside his associate David Mills, known as Gypsy Dave.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono were arrested on October 18, 1968, after their London flat was raided by police. They appeared at Marylebone Court the following day on charges of possessing cannabis. George Harrison and his wife faced the same court in March 1969 on possession charges following a raid at their home.
Timothy Leary appeared in Laredo, Texas, in early 1966 facing charges of smuggling marijuana into the United States. His 18-year-old daughter was charged alongside him. Leary went on to face further charges and was sentenced to 10 years in prison on marijuana charges in January 1973.
The 1970s: From London Courts to Tokyo Airport
Tony Curtis appeared at Uxbridge Court in London on April 27, 1970, and pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis resin. He was fined £50. David Bowie visited his attorney in Rochester, New York, on March 25, 1976, before appearing in court on drug possession charges following his arrest four days earlier after a concert.
Bob Marley appeared at Marylebone Magistrates Court in London on April 6, 1977, charged with possessing cannabis. He was 31 years old at the time. Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols was fined £40 on a drugs charge at Marlborough Street Magistrates Court on March 11, 1977, and gave a double V-sign to journalists as he left.
Keith Richards appeared at Marlborough Street Court in London on June 27, 1973, alongside his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg, both charged with drug and firearm offenses. Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy appeared at Richmond Magistrates Court on April 24, 1980, accused of possessing cocaine and cannabis resin and cultivating a cannabis plant at his home.
Paul McCartney’s arrest was the most dramatic of the decade. On January 17, 1980, he was rushed from a police car to a drug investigation unit in Tokyo after customs officers at Narita Airport found marijuana in his luggage. He spent twelve days in a Japanese jail before being deported.
Beyond Music
The arrests weren’t limited to musicians. Robert Kennedy Jr., just 16 years old, left court at Barnstable, Massachusetts on August 6, 1970, after a hearing on marijuana possession charges. Bernard King, the Tennessee basketball star and first-round NBA draft pick, appeared in court in Knoxville on August 1, 1977, and pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana and resisting arrest.
Joe Cocker was convicted of drug possession in Australia and ordered out of the country in October 1972, driving away from Heathrow Airport upon his return to England.
The photographs from these arrests share a common quality — celebrities in court clothes, lawyers at their sides, cameras in their faces, caught between the public personas they had built and the very human situations they had landed themselves in.
