Court: Aloha, Whitney

By Stephen M. Silverman

05/04/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

District Judge Joseph Florendo Jr. has dropped Whitney Houston's charge of marijuana possession and she now has a clean legal record in Hawaii, prosecutors have told the Associated Press. The petty misdemeanor charge was dismissed Monday after a substance abuse assessment was filed on her behalf, said Deputy Prosecutor Melvin Fujino. The assessment, filed on Feb. 22 by a certified substance abuse counselor in New Jersey, stated that the pop star, 37, does not require treatment for substance abuse. In January of 2000, Houston's bag was seized at the Keahole-Kona Airport. Fujino and Houston's attorneys stipulated in court in November that the bag contained less than half an ounce of marijuana in two plastic baggies and three partially smoked marijuana cigarettes. Houston, who was not arrested, allegedly abandoned the bag at the security checkpoint and boarded a United Airlines flight for San Francisco with her husband, singer Bobby Brown, before police arrived.