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Melissa Etheridge Arrested for Marijuana Possession at U.S.-Canada Border

Melissa Etheridge was arrested for possession of marijuana on August 17, TMZ reports.

According to legal documents obtained by the outlet, the 56-year-old singer was returning to the United States from Canada when her tour bus was stopped in North Dakota by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. Authorities reportedly discovered marijuana oil with the help of a K-9 unit.

Melissa Etheridge
Melissa Etheridge’s mugshot Police Handout

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TMZ reported that Etheridge told police she uses the drug to manage pain from cancer. Marijuana is legal in her home state of California but not in North Dakota. She was reportedly booked for possession of a controlled substance and pleaded not guilty. Despite the run-in, she appeared to be in good spirits and smiled in her mugshot.

Us Weekly has reached out to Etheridge’s rep and CBP for comment.

The “Come to My Window” singer first opened up about her marijuana use earlier this year. “Cannabis is a part of my life,” she told Yahoo! in April. She explained to the website that she began smoking recreationally at the age of 21 and later began using it medicinally after her 2004 breast cancer diagnosis.

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“I asked many of my friends [who had gone through chemo], ‘What’s the experience? What are you doing?’ And my friend David Crosby, he was the first one who said, ‘You know, Melissa, you have to do medicinal marijuana. You have to [try] cannabis. That’s the way to do it. It’s too hard otherwise,'” she said at the time.

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Etheridge also admitted to smoking with her eldest children, Bailey, 20, and Beckett, 18. “It was funny at first, and then they realized it’s very natural [at the] end of the day,” she told the site. “It brings you much closer. I’d much rather have a smoke with my grown kids than a drink.”

The two-time Grammy winner shares Bailey and Beckett with ex Julie Cypher, and twins Miller and Johnnie, 10, with ex Tammy Lynn Michaels.

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