Morgenstern was fined 100 thousand rubles due to cannabis tattoos

The Naberezhnye Chelny City Court of Tatarstan fined rapper Alisher Morgenstern 100 thousand rubles due to cannabis tattoos. TASS reported this on May 20.

The rapper was found guilty of promoting drugs (Part 1.1 of Article 6.13 of the Administrative Code). The court found that footage from Morgenstern’s videos “New Wave”, “El problema” and “Yung Hefner”, where cannabis tattoos are visible on his body, contain drug propaganda.

In addition to tattoos, a scene from the rapper’s video, where a white pill is hidden in a book, was considered propaganda. According to the court, this is a depiction of the “oral method of drug consumption.”

An examination of the case was carried out by specialists from the Naberezhnye Chelny State Pedagogical University, who determined that a plant “similar to hemp” was depicted on the rapper’s body. Specialists from the Moscow Scientific and Practical Center for Narcology of the capital’s Department of Health believed that the demonstration of tattoos creates among viewers “associative connections between the permissibility of illegal consumption of hemp plant products and achieving success.”

Morgenstern's lawyer Sergei Zhorin said that initially the police checked the lyrics of Morgenstern's songs, but did not find drug propaganda there. After this, experts decided to check his tattoos.

The court twice returned the case of drug propaganda to the police due to the fact that the resolution was drawn up without the rapper himself, and he was not warned about the date of consideration of the case.

• In June 2021, Morgenstern was fined one hundred thousand rubles under the article on drug propaganda due to the tracks “Pink Wine 2” and Family.
• At the end of 2020, prosecutors demanded a ban on Morgenstern’s song “I Ate Grandfather.”
• On May 6, the Ministry of Justice recognized Morgenstern as a “foreign agent.”