Justin Bieber Smoking Weed

Justin Bieber used his platform as host of "Saturday Night Live" to apologize to his fans for being photographed smoking weed ... but he did it in character.

During a sketch entitled "The Miley Cyrus Show," Bieber played Miley's biggest fan. After lobbing a few insults at himself, Biebs, while still in character, says (of the real Biebs), "I also heard he got busted for smoking weed. And he's really sorry about it. And people make mistakes. And he's never gonna do it again."

Bieber never commented directly on the pics ... until last night .. and in the third person.

Justin Bieber insists ... he ain't some out-of-control pot-smoking sizzurp-chugging dumbass -- despite several photos circulating which suggest otherwise -- he's just a "responsible" 18-year-old who's enjoying life.

Bieber appeared on Jimmy Fallon last night, when the late night host joked about police pulling Bieber's white Ferrari over ... a ludicrous number of times.

Bieber responded, "I don't do anything. I promise. It looks bad. You see pictures of me getting pulled over, but really the tints are really dark ... I need dark tints because I don't want to cause accidents because people want to take pictures. I just thought it would be more safe for everyone else if I had dark tints."

He added, "I'm thinking about other people!"

Justin Bieber's at the center of ANOTHER marijuana controversy -- TMZ has learned MORE photos of the singer holding a blunt were being shopped to media outlets.

The photos -- which we've seen -- show 18-year-old Justin and his bud Lil Za casually passing the weed-filled stogie back and forth while hanging outside of an L.A. home.

FYI -- Lil Za is the guy who was pulled over and detained for driving Bieber's Ferrari without a license early Friday morning. We're told the marijuana photos were taken Thursday.

It's not the first time Bieber's been photographed with grass ... just last month, Justin was pictured with another rapper -- Lil Twist -- holding a smoldering joint at a hotel party in Newport Beach. Ironically, Bieber loaned the same Ferrari to Lil Twist January 1st. You'll recall a photog was struck and killed by another motorist while shooting pics of Twist being pulled over for speeding.

We reached out to Justin's camp for comment ... about smoking pot and loaning his car to less-than-responsible people. So far no word back.

Justin Bieber has given Saturday Night Live writers permission to spoof him all they want when he hosts the show Feb 9 ... and that includes pot smoking.

Sources connected with NBC tell TMZ ... Justin's camp has declared NOTHING off-limits. To the contrary, our sources say Justin himself has told producers to push him as far as they want.

Smart move ... It worked for Paris Hilton, who appeared on SNL right after her sex tape was released. Alec Baldwin also scored right after the whole Words with Friends thing.

Akon doesn't drink ... Akon doesn't smoke ... but Akon was pretty damn surprised when he found out his pal Justin Bieber might be doin' both.

Akon was leaving The Ivy yesterday when we asked him about the fan reaction to the photos of Bieber puffin' away on a joint, while surrounded by Coronas, at a recent hotel party.

"I gotta talk to Justin," Akon said ... "I didn't know he was smoking."

"That's my little man ... hopefully, I'll make an impact."

Akon's confident he can reach his 18-year-old friend ... telling us, "He's a responsible kid."

Justin Bieber wasn't born with the talent to become an international superstar ... he inhaled it ... in the form of miraculous marijuana smoke -- so says legendary weed icon Tommy Chong.

The "Cheech & Chong" star was out in L.A. yesterday when we asked if he thought more highly of Bieber now that he knows the singer smokes pot -- and Tommy laughed, saying, "Of course!"

He said, "I knew [Bieber] was smoking before he knew it. Because of his music. Because of his dancing. The guy is a phenom ... It's not just his looks. It's his talent. And you don't get talent like that by drinking alcohol. The herb, man! The herb!"

Justin Bieber lights up a blunt, but now some people wanna blame his Black friend?!! Lil Twist ... meet the bus -- you'll be underneath it.

The Game has some friendly words of advice from one pot smoker to another -- telling Justin Bieber ... it's time he got smart about smoking pot ... and acquired a medical marijuana card.

Game -- a self-proclaimed weed enthusiast -- was getting his hike on in L.A. today when we asked about the Bieber pics, and Game replied, "Let's keep it real. There's a lot of people in high positions ... who smoke a little weed sometimes."

Game added, "I'm not saying it's okay ... but [Bieber] made a mistake. Forgive him. Let him go through the growing pains of his life."

Miley Cyrus is trying to put a stop to a new sick trend that's emerged on the Internet -- a trend that involves self-described Justin Bieber fans mutilating their bodies after seeing the pics of the singer smoking pot.

The hashtag #cut4bieber has become the top U.S. trend on Twitter ... after people began posting photos featuring bleeding arms, allegedly the result of "cutting" by disappointed fans looking to pressure the singer into giving up his pot habit.

In fact, someone even started a website encouraging Bieber fans to cut themselves and post photos of the carnage .... until Bieber gives up marijuana for good.

But moments ago, Miley Cyrus weighed in on the troubling trend -- retweeting a messaging saying:

"#cut4bieber? Cutting is NOT something to joke about. There are people who are actually suffering from self-harm, this is so disrespectful."

Justin Bieber's people have smartly tried to contain the teenage singer's hijinks by attempting to make it clear to anyone who parties with him ... any pictures snapped are automatically the property of Justin.

Sources familiar with the situation tell TMZ ... Justin's people routinely place a sign in places where Justin parties -- a sign that says any and all photos taken at the party do NOT belong to the people who took them -- they all belong to JB.

It's a literal and figurative sign of the concern Justin's people are showing for a famous teenager with a penchant for risk-taking.

As for the photos taken last week in that Newport Beach Hotel room showing Justin smoking a blunt, our sources say if there was a sign it wasn't obvious ... because the people who took pictures saw nothing.

In addition to signage, we're told Justin's security people are supposed to "manage" private situations like the one in the hotel room, but apparently security didn't do its job ... or they've been co-opted by Justin.

Justin Bieber did not start his Salt Lake City concert on time Saturday night ... because he made a pit stop at a children's hospital to visit a 7-year-old leukemia patient.

Millie Flamm was too sick to attend the concert, so Justin gave her a private show, holding her hand while singing a song.

Justin Bieber is under the influence ... of a rapper named Lil Twist -- and the rapper may be leading JB down a dangerous path.

Twist was with Bieber in a Newport Beach hotel room last week, where, we're told, the rapper was happily rolling blunts for J.B. and others.

Sources familiar with the situation tell TMZ ... JB and Twist have become tight ... and have been smoking together on a number of other occasions.

You'll recall ... Twist was speeding on the 405 Freeway New Year's Day in Justin's Ferrari when he was pulled over by cops. A photog was killed trying to snap pics of the traffic stop. Prior to the accident, Twist and Justin had spent much of the day in a room at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills -- where Justin frequently gets a room.

Twist's Twitter profile pic makes it clear ... he's a fan.

Sources involved in Justin's life who care about him are deeply concerned that Twist has become a powerful negative influence in his life and feel very strongly Justin needs a clean break from the rapper or else bad things are going to happen.

Justin Bieber kicked off the new year on a real high note -- clutching a smoldering blunt at a big party inside a Newport Beach hotel room this week ... and TMZ has the photos.

The pics were snapped on January 2nd -- the day after a paparazzo was killed while trying to take photos of Bieber's Ferrari -- and it's pretty obvious ... Bieber wasn't feeling too bad about the whole situation.

Sources at the party tell TMZ, Bieber's BFF Lil Twist was there too -- the 19-year-old rapper who was driving the Biebs' Ferrari at the time the paparazzo was killed.

According to sources, Twist and his brother were rolling all the blunts and smoking everyone up ... and there was a LOT of pot smoke.

It's pretty ironic -- considering sources close to Bieber were insistent ... the photog who was killed lied when he said Justin was smoking weed hours before the fatal accident.

And there's this -- we're told Bieber had security present ... but no one seemed to mind that people were snapping photos.

As for talking points -- sources tell us Bieber was chatting it up about how tired he was because he'd been staying up late recently. Shockingly, we're told the conversation eventually turned to late night fast food ... and where they could get it.

We're told a girl also crashed in the hotel room with Justin -- NOT Selena. It's unclear if they hooked up.

Justin Bieber's pot smoking raises questions about the role of celebs as role models. So we gotta ask ...

Selena Gomez had nothing to say at LAX about her breakup with Justin Bieber or allegations that the Biebs had been smoking pot.

TMZ broke the story ... Selena and Justin broke up in Mexico on December 30th after a blowout argument. She flew back to L.A. that day and Justin returned on New Year's Eve. As for the nature of the argument, a source tells us, "It's just high school stuff."

The photogs were trying to grill Gomez -- who dressed like a chic Unabomber -- about Justin's alleged marijuana use. A close friend of Chris Guerra -- the photog who was killed on New Year's Day -- told TMZ Guerra had told him he saw J.B. driving his Ferrari earlier in the day, smoking pot from a pipe. Sources connected with Bieber insist it's not the case.

Justin Bieber was stalked and harassed by the photographer who was killed while taking pictures of the singer's car on New Year's Day, and he lied about J.B. smoking pot ... sources connected with Bieber tell TMZ.

Our well-connected Bieber sources tell TMZ ... photog Chris Guerra made Justin's life hell ... following and chasing him at every opportunity.

The sources claim Chris flat-out lied when he called a friend shortly before he was killed, claiming he saw Justin smoking pot in a pipe while driving his Ferrari earlier that day. The sources say multiple witnesses will say the only time Justin left the Four Seasons on New Year's Day was to go to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in Hollywood for lunch, and there was never a pipe in sight.

Sources connected to Justin and Selena say the photog was lying when he told the friend he saw a car belonging to Selena Gomez on the Four Seasons property. The sources tell us ... the two of them flew to Mexico for New Year's Eve, but had a blow-out argument on December 30 and broke up. Selena left Mexico that same day and Justin left for L.A. on the 31st. They haven't seen each other since and she was never at the Four Seasons on New Year's Day.