Chris Brown is under heat for smoking what may have been marijuana on stage in Ghana last week. Known for it’s no-public-smoking laws, some Ghanaians have become so outraged they are ready to prosecute the singer for his behavior on stage.
"He promoted an illegality,” said Jonathan Osei-Owusu to Radio.com, who is the executive director of Perfector of Sentiments, a youth advocacy organization, who is leading the petition against Brown for promoting weed smoking and promoting civil unrest. “You can see from the video and yet he was let go free.”
The petition calls for major Ghanaian figures – from Parliament to the U.S. Ambassador in Ghana – to support the petition and to hold Brown accountable.
“He is on video to have encouraged the audience to take up arms against people who stand in their way to smoking weed,” the statement reads. “In our prisons, many are incarcerated for same.”
A video has surfaced online of Brown's performance for Ghana's 56th anniversary of their independence at the Accra Sports Stadium. The "Don't Judge Me" singer can be heard asking the crowd, “How many of y’all smoke weed?” and continues, “If anybody is tripping of y’all smoking weed, f*** them. S***, I got my blunt right here.”
The footage also shows the R&B singer on stage smoking as a medley of songs about marijuana begin to play, from Rick James’ “Mary Jane” to Dr. Dre’s “The Next Episode” to Afroman’s “Because I got high.”
The event organizers however, claim that Brown was not smoking weed and that the incident was in fact an orchestrated stunt.
Osei-Owusu is not a believer in the claims of it just being a stunt. “When you live in the city or village, you understand the smell of marijuana,” he said. “I was there. We smelled weed. That is what he promoted.”
The youth activist is continuing to take legal actions against Brown. “The last two days, I have been with the police and an investigation has commenced. The police have moved swiftly and they are not leaving anything unturned.”
Osei-Owusu is not only asking for help from Ghanaian officials but also wants the American government to get involved.
“The same way that America is fighting a drug menace, this is a call for them to see that one of their own has come to a country like Ghana–as much as we have struggled to maintain sanity and fight the drug menace– to break the law,” he said. “The onus lies with the American government to team up with our security agency in Ghana to make sure Chris Brown faces the full rigors of the law.”
