Drugs & Alcohol

President Biden is letting a lot of drug offenders out of prison who've earned lengthy sentences -- with his theme apparently being ... the punishment doesn't fit the crime.

JB just released a new clemency list, and it includes dozens of names who've been locked up for years now for crimes ranging from possession of drugs to conspiracy or intent to distribute narcotics -- including cocaine and meth -- and he's giving them a huge break.

A majority of these folks are due to be set free immediately ... or by 2023. He's commuting tons of sentences -- some of which were as long as 20-30 years, and in some cases life -- leaving most to be served out in home confinement, via supervised release or both.

All in all, there are 75 inmates he's cutting loose from the federal prison system ... and like we said, their crimes all seem to be in the drug realm ... from minor to relatively major offenses.

In addition to these commutations, Biden is also pardoning three people -- including a couple more drug offenders who've since been released from prison and gone on to become upstanding citizens.

The third pardon is a bit more noteworthy ... Biden is honoring Abraham Bolden Sr., a former U.S. Secret Service agent who was imprisoned after he was charged and convicted with attempting to sell a copy from a SS file in the '60s.

Bolden -- who was the first Black man to serve on a presidential detail back then -- got a raw deal, according to the DOJ. Key witnesses who were part of his initial trial apparently copped to lying at prosecutors' request ... and Bolden was also denied a new trial.

It looks like people came to Coachella ready to party and break the law even more so on the second go-around this year -- because cops slapped on way more cuffs than Week 1.

The second-weekend data is out ... and according to Indio Police, officers made a total of 133 arrests from Friday through Sunday -- which is about 20 more busts than what they'd done the weekend prior ... and a whopping 36% more than Weekend 2 in 2019.

As for how the alleged crimes break down, IPD says 106 of those arrests were drug/alcohol or intoxication-related, 17 of them had to do with fake IDs, 5 were possession of drugs for sale and another 5 were miscellaneous.

Their ticket handouts were higher on the 2nd weekend as well compared to the first -- cops say they gave out 96 citations (compared to last week's 72) ... and that figure, they say, is 81% higher than what they doled out in 2019.

Seems lots of people were eager to whip out handicap placards ... because IPD says they gave 91 citations for the unlawful use of those. Four people allegedly parked in handicap stalls and 1 person brought an unregistered vehicle into the desert ... so claim the police.

Like we said ... the numbers are higher than they were on the week of the 15th, so it appears folks came down looking to go out with a bang seeing how Coachella won't be back for a full year.

Kylie Jenner says she expressed her concerns to her brother when he got into a relationship with Blac Chyna ... because Kylie's own ex, Tyga, had warned Chyna was violent.

Kylie took the stand Monday in the Chyna v. Kardashian trial ... and Chyna's lawyer asked her about her relationship with Chyna. Kylie says she wouldn't have ever considered Chyna a close friend, but says Tyga -- who has a kid with Chyna -- once showed her a 6-inch long scar on his arm, claiming it was a knife wound at the hands of Chyna.

Chyna's attorney continued questioning, and Kylie revealed Tyga told her Chyna abused drugs and alcohol -- and they were to blame for the violent knife attack.

Kylie says she brought her concerns about Chyna's behavior to Rob Kardashian, but says Rob told her he was going to continue to date Chyna. Kylie said in court, "I felt it was my duty to express my concerns, but ultimately it was up to him."

This is the second week of testimony in the case ... we've heard from Kris, Chyna and now Kylie. Kim was not in court Monday ... as we reported, she's in D.C. with Pete Davidson.

Last week we also saw Chyna's mom, Tokyo Toni, get banned from the courtroom for bashing the Kardashian family and then she seemingly threatened the judge ... though she later told our camera the threat was aimed at Kris Jenner.

Quavo is looking to put city boys up 100 points with his new cannabis line called Birkinz – it's inspired by the super-expensive bags, but he says it's a much better investment ... for guys, anyway.

The Migos rapper tells TMZ Hip Hop he got the idea for the new weed strain because he just "got tired of buying the girls Birkins, so we started smoking it!!!"

Hermès Birkin bags are some of the most name-dropped items in rap lyrics, and they go for $40,000 to $100,000. Some extremely rare ones can even rival the cost of modest homes. Kanye West reportedly dropped $275,000 on one earlier this year.

Of course, Quavo might have PTSD on this subject. Back when he dated Saweetie in 2020, she left him blank-faced and speechless ahead of her "Back to the Streets" record (a song about being newly single) -- as she commanded her female fanbase to drop their dudes if they weren't buying them Birkins.

Now, Quavo isn't buying Birkins, but paying bills with Birkinz and even did a collab with popular streetwear brand Awful Lot of Cough Syrup.

Kris Jenner says she fully thought Blac Chyna was going to kill Rob Kardashian when she pointed a gun to his head ... and in no way did she think it was a joke.

Kris was back on the stand Friday for a second day of testimony in Chyna's trial, claiming she thought BC tried to murder her son back in December 2016. Rob's mom hurled the allegation almost right out of the gate, with Chyna's lawyer asking her if she believed Chyna attempted murder on her son. Kris responded, "I do."

Kris says she came to the conclusion after looking at everything going on back then between Rob and Chyna ... claiming Rob had marks on his body from the phone cord Chyna wrapped around his neck, in addition to his torn shirt.

What's more, Kris says she felt Chyna had animosity and hatred towards her family ... saying alcohol was involved when Chyna pointed the gun at Rob's head and wondered what it would be like to be in Rob's situation at that moment.

As we reported ... Chyna claimed she pointed the gun at Rob as a joke, and insisted the phone cord she put around his neck was also done in jest.

Kris was asked why she didn't call the police if she thought Chyna was going to kill her son. She said she thought BC had enough problems with cops and figured her own security, made up of former LAPD officers, could get the situation under control if necessary.

And, get this ... Kris was asked about a text she sent where she wrote, "He (Rob) is devastated, and he needs to ditch the bitch."

Kris told the jury she sent the text in anger when she was very upset, adding ... "I probably could've used a word that was nicer."

Chyna's lawyer asked Kris why she would want to use a nicer word to describe someone she believed tried to murder her son Kris said, "It's just really not the way I like to talk about people."

Kris was then shown another text message she sent to the showrunner behind Rob and Chyna's reality TV show, where Kris wrote, "Let's take her off the show and just make it Rob raising his daughter."

Asked why she sent the text, Kris explained ... "This is my son that has been traumatized and I was just trying to figure out what to do." She started crying on the stand as she compared Rob having a gun pointed to his head to Kim Kardashian being tied up in a bathtub in Paris.

Kris was also asked about another text, where she claimed Chyna beat the crap out of Rob's face, and the meaning behind it.

In her explanation, Kris drew a laugh from the courtroom crowd when she referenced the Will Smith and Chris Rock moment at the Oscars, saying ... "It's like if I was at the Academy Awards and got hit in the face, might say I got the s*** beat out of my face.”

Mike Tyson isn't letting his violent plane beatdown ruin his high -- the boxing legend smoked like a chimney alongside Rick Ross and Ric Flair Thursday night ... around 24 hours after he punched the crap out of a man.

Iron Mike was grinning from ear to ear with the rap superstar and wrestling legend during the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference afterparty at LIV in Miami ... taking the stage and sparking up as the crowd cheered below.

Tyson was initially supposed to speak at the weed conference Thursday afternoon alongside the Nature Boy ... but after his violent altercation with an apparent heckler, event organizers said his scheduled appearance was scrapped "due to a flight change."

Tyson seemingly made up for the scheduling conflict at the afterparty ... although it's unclear if he addressed the incident with folks in attendance.

TMZ Sports broke the story -- Tyson repeatedly punched a man on a plane at SFO on Wednesday ... after the passenger allegedly threw a water bottle at him.

Our Tyson sources claim the man was completely wasted -- and wouldn't stop provoking him until the beatdown.

The 55-year-old boxing legend was also super friendly with fans in Miami following the incident on Thursday ... posing for pictures and meeting supporters outside a hotel.

The man who got punched by Mike Tyson on a JetBlue plane has a long criminal record ... TMZ has learned.

His name -- Melvin Townsend, III, and this isn't his first encounter with cops, by any means. He's been convicted of fraud, grand theft, burglary, possession of controlled substances and trafficking in stolen property.

As for specifics, the 36-year-old broke onto a property in 2018 and stole a trailer that he hitched to his pickup. The drug possession offense was for oxycodone. Official docs don't mention other specifics. He served time twice -- one for 20 months and another time for 15 months.

TMZ broke the story ... Townsend looks like he was harassing Tyson after they boarded the flight Wednesday from San Francisco to Miami. Before the plane took off, Townsend, who was sitting behind Tyson, was hounding him. Mike's team claims Townsend threw a water bottle at him.

The boxing champ then snapped and unloaded on him with repeated punches, leaving him bloodied. Both men got off the plane and were met by cops. Townsend said he didn't want to press charges and they both were free to go.

Johnny Depp's infamous kitchen rampage against Amber Heard was just played in court ... and the video shows him slamming cabinets, pouring wine and going "crazy" in his words.

The actor's testimony rolled on Thursday for the third day, with footage Amber secretly recorded in their kitchen shown to the jury.

You hear Johnny swearing as he slams and kicks kitchen cabinets and drawers, then grabs a wine glass as Amber asks questions over what has him so upset ... "Did something happen to you this morning? I don't think so. You wanna see crazy? I'll give you crazy. Here's your crazy. All your crazy."

Depp smashes a glass in the middle of his rant and caps it off by pouring a big glass of wine before noticing the device recording him ... leading to an apparent scuffle.

Johnny was asked about the video in court and said, "Being illegally recorded by your chosen other is quite fitting with the rest of the photographs" ... seemingly referencing the other exhibits presented in court.

Depp admitted to assaulting "a couple of cabinets" but said he did not hit Amber during the incident.

Johnny was also asked about pouring himself a "mega pint" of red wine ... but he said it was just a "large" glass.

Missouri drivers are going green, and we ain't talking Teslas -- it's whole lotta ganja scattered all over an interstate, making for a very slow and chill commute ... on 4/20, no less!

Ya heard that right! State troopers found quite the scene when they responded to a 3-car crash Wednesday. No one was seriously injured, and the only passenger we can clearly identify is ... Mary Jane.

500 pounds of marijuana, to be precise, in plastic bags that were strewn about the highway during the wreck.

Ya gotta imagine someone was on scene yelling "smoke 'em if ya got 'em" ... but we can't confirm that. The coincidental date of the accident wasn't lost on the responding officers, as the Missouri State Highway Patrol tweeted, "You definitely don’t see this every day, but it is 4/20".

Turns out the pickup truck allegedly carrying all the weed was making its way across the state, where only medicinal weed is legal. Two men in the truck were arrested for drug trafficking, and reportedly suffered moderate injuries.

Antonio Brown had a REALLY good 4/20 ... the dude smoked a footlong blunt -- and then rapped for a huge crowd in downtown Los Angeles!!!

AB was out in DTLA at Traditional dispensary on Wednesday night for Gunna's new weed strain launch event -- and the free agent wide receiver was having the time of his life.

TMZ Sports got video of the 33-year-old smokin' weed and then hitting the stage to perform songs off his new album, "Paradigm" -- which a packed crowd in attendance loved.

In video from the event, you can see Brown smoked several times (including once from a monster blunt) in between grabbing the mics -- and at one point during one of his songs, he even threw a bunch of money at the crowd.

Later, he asked fans about his football career, saying, "What you guys think I should do? Do you think I should play football? What do you think I should do? If you think I should play football, say, 'Yes!'"

Brown spoke with us later in the evening ... and hinted that he's receiving interest from the Dallas Cowboys to continue his football career.

AB eventually ended the night by rapping his hit, "Pit Not The Palace," with a white mask over his face ... officially putting an exclamation point on a helluva 4/20.

By the way, if you were wondering, the NFL has laxed its policy on weed in the past couple years -- its threshold for positive tests has increased, and it's no longer suspending players who do test positive.

Mike Tyson is not letting his airplane beatdown stop him from talking to a bunch of bigwigs in the weed biz at an industry event ... TMZ Sports has learned.

Our sources say Tyson is slated to speak at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference Afterparty at LIV in Miami at around 8 PM ET on Thursday night ... despite bloodying a man in an altercation on a plane in San Francisco on Wednesday night.

What's interesting ... Tyson was initially scheduled to talk at the Cannabis Capital Conference -- an event for those in the weed industry -- at 12:05 p.m. ET with Ric Flair, but event organizers told conference-goers Mike had to cancel on that "due to a flight change."

No word on if Tyson will address the plane incident at the afterparty ... or stick strictly to marijuana talk.

As we reported, Tyson was captured on video throwing a flurry of punches at a man on a plane at SFO on Wednesday after the passenger had appeared to annoy him.

Footage shows following the blows, the man was bleeding from his forehead. A witness on the plane told us the man required medical attention and went to the police.

For his part, sources close to Tyson claim the man was extremely intoxicated ... and wouldn't stop provoking the boxer prior to the outburst.

Killer Mike's having one hell of a 47th birthday -- celebrating another spin around the sun, and the fact he's getting paid to spotlight something he loves ... the growth of cannabis culture in America.

Mike joined us Wednesday on "TMZ Live" to talk about his 4-part Vice TV docuseries, "Tumbleweeds With Killer Mike" -- but before we got into that he told us how he's toasting his birthday. You gotta see the clip, but let's just say it involves lots of marijuana and his wife Shay Bigga. It's hilarious.

As for Mike's new show ... 'Tumbleweeds' shows the rapper and activist traveling around the country, showing mary jane's economic impact in cities where it's been legalized.

He says one of his goals is to normalize the cannabis industry by showing the business opportunities it brings, and its positive effects on marginalized communities ... where people have been disproportionately imprisoned for marijuana.

The series debuts tonight on Vice, and you can tell Mike's excited about its potential to shift America's views on legalization.

BTW ... his group, Run The Jewels, will be back at Coachella for the 2nd weekend, and it sounds like he and LP are getting a lineup upgrade.

Wiz Khalifa's been very active on the music front this year and, naturally, he's keeping that going for 420 ... by dropping a huge streaming treat for fans.

The diamond-selling rapper's throwing it back to his earlier days as a mixtape master, and unleashing his 2012 project Taylor Allderdice (named after his Pittsburgh high school) on streaming services for the first time.

Originally released on March 13, 2012 ... the album had top-notch features from Rick Ross, Wiz's then-wife Amber Rose, Juicy J and production from Cardo and longtime collaborators ID Labs: E. Dan, Sledgren, Sayez and Big Jerm.

Today being a national holiday -- for Wiz, anyway -- he told his 36 million Instagram followers he's celebrating with some Khalifa Kush and a gym session.

The project's host – Genius correspondent and rapper Rob Markman – tells TMZ Hip Hop he was so high out of his mind (how'd that happen?!), he doesn't remember actually saying "It's Rob Markman on Twitter – send ya hate mail" to open the project.

"Wiz had a lot of things to get off his chest and basically told me to ask him any and everything and not to hold back," Rob says. "So we interviewed for well over an hour— Juicy J was there, Smoke DZA was there, Chevy Woods was there, Will was there, and there was a TON of weed. It was a good time."

Ronnie Ortiz-Magro said he's going to return to 'Jersey Shore' for the upcoming season ... but he was nowhere to be found when his reality TV family recently started filming.

TMZ obtained these photos of some 'Jersey Shore' stars shooting scenes Easter Sunday at a winery in Southern California ... and there's no sign of Ronnie.

Here's who was at the Cordiano Winery in Escondido for filming ... Vinny, Snooki, Deena, JWoww and Mike The Situation ... plus some wives, husbands, girlfriends and boyfriends. The other main cast member who wasn't there was Pauly D.

We're told the 'Jersey Shore' cast took over the winery ... shutting the place down for filming, including the tasting room, and forcing everyone else to order food and wine from a separate bar.

It's interesting Ronnie is still missing from the action ... remember, he told us back in August he was sober and planning to return to the MTV show for the second half of the 5th season.

Bam Margera is working out again as part of his latest rehab program ... and one of his oldest friends says it's the best Bam has been in ages.

Bam's "Jackass" and "Viva La Bam" costar, Brandon Novak, tells TMZ ... it's the closest Bam has been to the person he was when they were growing up together on the skateboard scene.

Bam's working out at Recovery Through Repetition, a fitness gym for folks who are in recovery, and Brandon says they took Bam to his first class Friday night and the plan is to get Bam exercising on a consistent basis.

TMZ broke the story ... Bam said one of his earlier rehab stints made him feel like he was going to die from an overdose or suicide, and he claimed he was seeking help in Florida.

Bam got booted from the latest 'Jackass' movie because he failed a drug test ... but he sued and last week a settlement was reached.

Weekend 1 of Coachella 2022 is in the books -- and after a 2-year hiatus, it seems folks were itching to land in some trouble with the law ... turns out, arrests were up!

The Indio Police Dept. just released hard numbers describing the alleged scoundrels they encountered Fri-Sun -- the first time Coachella had happened since 2019 -- and wouldn't you know it ... they slapped handcuffs on quite a few more people than the last time around.

There were a total of 112 arrests this year -- up 13% from the 99 arrests they made during Weekend 1 in 2019 -- and they issued a helluva lot more citations in 2022 as well ... 72 of them, in fact, which is 41% more than what they handed out in 2019 for the same window.

If you're wondering how exactly that data breaks down -- well, IPD has that info for you too ... there were 85 drug/alcohol/intoxication busts this year, 15 false ID arrests, 3 instances of folks allegedly possessing drugs for sale and 9 property crimes for which they hauled someone in.

On the citation front ... 54 slips were written for people cops say used bogus handicap placards, and 18 that were drawn up for attendees actually parking in handicap spots.

Now, the upside ... Indio Police say traffic congestion was kept in check -- thanks to a team effort from neighboring law enforcement agencies and partners -- and there were no major concert-related incidents.

So, all in all ... a pretty successful first weekend in the desert, minus all these other arrests they're mentioning. While they're not ideal, it doesn't seem like there were any crazy assaults or crimes of the like ... seems as though people were mostly getting trashed on their own accord.