Catching A Felony For Having 1-Ounce of Weed In Your Bedroom Closet, Which Cops Found Because You Called Them After Someone Burglarized Your Home, Is An All-Time Bad Beat
Variety – Rapper GloRilla was arrested on felony drug charges after a burglary occurred at her home near Atlanta on Saturday, according to Atlanta’s WSB-TV and TMZ — and then performed at the WNBA All-Star game in Indianapolis that night.
The Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to the channel that authorities were called to a home owned by the rapper, whose real name is Gloria Hallelujah Woods,at 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning.
Investigators said three suspects went into the home when Woods was not present and were robbing the residence when an unidentified individual inside the building fired at them. The burglars escaped and investigators do not believe they were injured.
During the investigation, officers smelled drugs and found a “significant amount of marijuana” in a bedroom closet. Woods was charged with possession of marijuana and possession of a controlled substance.
“The homeowner is a victim of a serious crime, and we are committed to bringing the suspects to justice,” Sheriff Ron Freeman told the channel. “At the same time, we must continue to uphold and enforce the law in all aspects of this case.”
What a ridiculously bad bead that is. 1 oz. of marijuana. Sure, when I bought an ounce of weed in college I thought I was literally George Jung. But a single ounce at the personal home of a multi-millionaire rapper? Snoop Dogg takes down that much weed in one bong rip. GloRilla having only an ounce of weed at home means she basically doesn't even burn.
(Sorry I couldn't decide which "Does Wade Burn?" clip to choose so I went with the full 10-minute compilation. God I love that show)
And now she's facing a felony possession charge. After having thousands of dollars in jewelry stolen, guns fired inside her own home while she was away, just when she thought her day couldn't get any worse, she's being hit with a felony because the piece of shit burglars who burgled her home couldn't even do her the courtesy of burgling her illicit substances.
This is a whole different place and time, but my drug dealer's apartment was robbed at gun point back in college. Some kid (who was wearing a mask at the time, but we later learned was a person who used to buy off him), came strolling into his unlocked apartment with two other masked dudes. Two of the masked dudes held guns their heads, as the other stuffed as much drugs and cash into his backpack as he could find. Happened right in little ol' Bowling Green, Ohio. Barely a block away from campus. It was a whole thing.
Afterwards, when the cops showed up to their place, as they were going over all the stuff that had been taken, the cops came across a bong, a scale, some weed the robbers had missed, some cash in an envelope, all stuff that made it extremely clear they were dealing drugs. They didn't try to lie to the cops either. They were 100% honest about everything. The cops ended up taking their envelope of cash (don't think they got that back either), but when it came to them being charged with any crimes, the cops specifically told them, "You guys are the victims here. We're not trying to bust you for anything."
That was back in 2013. A time where marijuana was very much illegal in Ohio. So maybe my friends just ran into the right cops that day. After that incident, I was always under the impression that if you were the victim of a violent crime, unless you were running some sort of serious operation, you probably don't have to be worried about getting hit with anything like a minor drug charge.
Turns out I was wrong about that. Because since then I've heard of other people who've had similar situations where they were not so lucky. Certainly not people in Forsyth County, Georgia, where an ounce of weed is still NOT considered "just a minor drug charge".
Well… for GloRilla specifically, it's probably pretty minor. Even with a DUI under her belt (which she got popped for in August of last year), the career of a successful rapper who can afford quality legal representation should't be affected by something like this. She literally performed at the WBNA All-Star game that very night.
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The rapper then performed at the WNBA All-Star game in Indianapolis that evening, playing a medley of her songs “Let Her Cook,” “Typa” and “TGIF” at the Gainsbridge Fieldhouse. She surrendered to authorities at the Forsyth County Jail on Tuesday and was released shortly afterward after on a $22,260 bond. Representatives for the rapper and the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.
Still… despite what the law is… c'mon cops. Was that really necessary? You gotta use some common sense and know who you're dealing with. GloRilla should not get a pass for being famous. But when you find one ounce of weed in any fairly well-off person's home, that's different than finding an ounce of weed on someone loitering near a school zone. They should be able to use context clues to determine intent. I think they can rest assured GloRilla is not dealing half-eighths to the neighborhood children. That's very obviously a personal stash. You want people to be able to trust you as cops, you want to have a good relationship with the community, so you'd think they'd want to make their lives easier by using common sense and meeting people halfway every once in a while. They could have just taken the weed. They could have taken it and smoked it for themselves. Nobody would have cared. This is such a wild, over-the-top reaction to have to someone's home who had just been broken into and robbed.
TMZ – The three suspects fled -- no injuries have been reported in the incident, the sheriff's office said. Glo's attorneys say jewelry was stolen.
Deputies executed a search of the area, with K-9 teams and a drone unit. Detectives also responded to the scene … and deputies reportedly "detected a strong odor consistent with illegal narcotics," according to the sheriff's office. A drug task force was summoned, and a search warrant was secured for the house. "A significant amount of marijuana was discovered in plain view" in the closet of the master bedroom, deputies said.
Findling Law Firm adds … "When her family members did the right thing and called law enforcement, instead of investigating the violent home invasion and theft at Ms. Woods’ home, they instead sought a search warrant when they spotted what they believed was a small amount of marijuana. Law enforcement then sought arrest warrants for her even though she hadn’t been at her home for some time. No arrest warrants have been issued for the violent home invaders. Ms. Woods is a victim, not a suspect. This is our tax dollars at work, absolutely unbelievable."
Responding to a burglary call and leaving with the homeowner in handcuffs (figuratively, she was in Indianapolis at the time) because you found a personal stash of a drug that's legal in half of the United States… that's not doing the community any favors. It's not like this robbery took place at a trap house. This is just giving people more of a reason to distrust law enforcement, and making them more likely to try and take matters like this into their own hands. Which is the opposite of what anybody wants to happen in a situation like that.
But I guess you gotta know the laws where you live. Everyone knows Atlanta is NO PLACE for recreational weed smoking. In California, a teacher is probably safe to carry around a QP with his lesson plans through the halls of a middle school. They're probably teaching grams to ounces conversions in elementary math classes. But in Georgia, you can have your whole house uprooted and hauled off on a trailer, but if the criminals leave an ounce of weed sitting in your vacant lot, you're the one catching a felony.
If I was going to play Devil's Advocate to myself, I suppose the cops may have thought they were about to uncover some sort of major drug ring? I mean, that's a crazy stretch, but considering everything that just went down with YSL and Young Thug (who is a WAY MORE rich and famous rapper than GloRilla, yet still got caught up in that life), maybe Forsyth County has a high enough hit rate on raiding rappers homes that they thought it was worth it. Seems pretty lazy to me to lump people together based on their profession like that. Unless she's currently under some sort of investigation in connection with… whatever… something that nobody knows about… that seems like a massive waste of time and money. All while the people who robbed her home were getting away scot-free.
At least in this case, GloRilla's charges will probably amount to the equivalent of you or I receiving a speeding ticket. Her career isn't going to be affected by this in any significant way. She's lucky in that regard. But still… what a brutal day that must have been. To have your house robbed and catch a felony for an ounce of pot in one fell swoop. That's some "Bad Beat of The Year" type of stuff. If you're ever unfortunate enough to have your home burglarized, be sure to flush your drugs.