Reality show performer Erica Mena’s roommate didn’t realize reporting a potential domestic abuse situation would send her to jail on charges of marijuana possession. On Friday night in John Creek, Georgia, witnesses at the house of the Love & Hip Hop cast member heard the sound of someone getting slapped upstairs. They decided to call the police and both Mena and her boyfriend Clifford Dixon were taken into custody. Dixon was picked up for criminal trespass and Mena found herself headed to jail when cops found “baggies of weed and possible THC wax in her bedroom and her kitchen,” reports TMZ.
According to Source, Mena posted bail and will have a court date in a few weeks. She looks irate in her mugshot, which is a fair reaction to the situation. Though the police found no visible marks on either Mena or Dixon related to the slap, two people did confirm at the scene that a broken door had been kicked down by Dixon when Mena locked it to hide from him. Cops seem to have been unable to hold their focus on the potential domestic violence situation when they discovered evidence that an adult woman had been smoking and dabbing cannabis in her own home. No word yet on what effect officers think such punitive actions towards potential abuse victims will have on domestic abuse reporting rates.
Recently, Georgian legalization advocates’ hopes were raised when two bills were introduced to the state’s Congress that would have reduced criminal charges for marijuana arrests statewide. Neither bill passed. Georgia has had its current medical marijuana program since 2015, which authorizes the use of low THC cannabis oil. Prescriptions must be based on a list of limited medical conditions that was expanded by the Senate in 2017 to include “intractable pain” and PTSD.
The house where Mena and Dixon’s arrests took place is located some 27 miles outside of Atlanta proper, where marijuana has been decriminalized through city councilperson Kwanza Hall’s 2017 ordinance. Though the law bars prison time for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana in Atlanta, it has not kept weed from being motivation for police interference even within city limits. Officers say a moving van with rapper Ty Dolla $ign in it was pulled over in September after they detected the smell of marijuana coming from it, resulting in the performer being taken into custody on drug charges. The rapper’s legal representation insinuated that his celebrity motivated cops to arrest Ty Dolla $ign while letting the six other occupants of the car go without charges.
Mena was a regular on Love & Hip Hop: New York before moving to Atlanta and joining the city’s cast for the show’s seventh season. She also has played roles on CSI: Cyber, Master of None, and Nick Cannon’s MTV comedy show Wild ’n Out. Regardless of her travails over the weekend, she has managed to keep a sunny outlook on social media, commenting to Monday morning’s crowd on Twitter, “Feeling extra UP today!”
