Actresses Charged with Drug Possession or Trafficking

Stories about drug charges often intersect with careers that audiences already know through memorable roles, beloved series, and films that defined an era. Below is a clear, factual look at actresses who have faced drug possession–related charges, paired with context about the work many people first knew them for. Wherever a title appears, you’ll see it in single quotes so it’s easy to spot.

Each entry sticks to verifiable details about the case and highlights notable projects—plot points, casts, and key crew—to ground the person’s public life in the work itself. This isn’t about opinions; it’s about the facts and the films and shows that shaped their careers.

Rose McGowan

McGowan was arrested in Virginia in 2017 after authorities said cocaine was found in a personal item at Washington Dulles International Airport. In January 2019 she pleaded no contest to a reduced misdemeanor charge and received a 12-month suspended sentence and a fine. McGowan is widely recognized for roles in ‘Scream’—Wes Craven’s meta-slasher starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette—and ‘Charmed’, created by Constance M. Burge with an ensemble of Alyssa Milano, Holly Marie Combs, and Shannen Doherty.

Beyond those, she was featured in Robert Rodriguez’s ‘Planet Terror’ (the companion to Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Death Proof’ in the ‘Grindhouse’ double feature), which blended pulpy horror with practical effects. In ‘Scream’, she played Tatum Riley, part of a friend group targeted by the Ghostface killer, while ‘Charmed’ followed three witch sisters navigating supernatural threats—McGowan joined later as Paige Matthews, working within a long-running writers’ room that balanced serialized arcs with monster-of-the-week storytelling.

Tatum O’Neal

O’Neal was arrested in New York in June 2008 and initially charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance; she later pleaded guilty in the case and was ordered to drug treatment. Earlier in her career, she won widespread attention for ‘Paper Moon’, directed by Peter Bogdanovich and co-starring Ryan O’Neal, a Depression-era con-artist road story that pairs a sharp father-daughter grift with period detail.

She also starred in ‘The Bad News Bears’, Michael Ritchie’s underdog baseball comedy headlined by Walter Matthau, about a ragtag youth team coached into shape with just-barely-organized practices and prickly rapport. ‘Paper Moon’ follows a Bible-selling scheme morphing into a cross-state partnership, while ‘The Bad News Bears’ sketches little-league politics and bench-warming kids finding their stride under a curmudgeonly manager.

Lindsay Lohan

Lohan’s 2007 arrest in California included booking on suspicion of DUI alongside felony counts tied to cocaine possession and transport; later proceedings resulted in misdemeanor pleas and a short jail term with probation. Her breakout films include ‘The Parent Trap’, Nancy Meyers’s family comedy where she played separated twins opposite Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson, and ‘Mean Girls’, a Tina Fey–written high-school satire directed by Mark Waters with a core cast of Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert, Amanda Seyfried, and Fey herself.

She also headlined ‘Freaky Friday’, another Mark Waters collaboration co-starring Jamie Lee Curtis, a body-swap comedy about a mother and daughter forced to understand each other’s lives, and ‘Herbie: Fully Loaded’, with Angela Robinson directing a garage-tuned revival of Disney’s sentient race-car series. ‘Mean Girls’ tracks social cliques through a new student’s infiltration of the Plastics, while ‘The Parent Trap’ retools mistaken identity into a plot about reuniting a family.

MacKenzie Phillips

Phillips was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in 2008 after screeners reported finding narcotics; she pleaded guilty to cocaine possession and entered a diversion program, and the case was dismissed after she completed treatment. She’s known for the sitcom ‘One Day at a Time’, developed by Norman Lear, co-starring Bonnie Franklin and Valerie Bertinelli; the series follows a divorced mother and her two daughters, mapping work, school, and apartment life with a rotating ensemble and multi-camera staging.

Phillips also appeared in ‘American Graffiti’, George Lucas’s ensemble film featuring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Cindy Williams, and Harrison Ford, which compresses cruising, jukebox hits, and pre-college jitters into a single night. ‘One Day at a Time’ used a writers’ room grounded in topical family stories—landlords, first jobs, and growing up—while ‘American Graffiti’ interweaves teen storylines around a classic-car strip and a radio DJ threading the soundtrack together.

Mischa Barton

Barton was arrested in December 2007 in Los Angeles and later charged with DUI and marijuana possession alongside driving without a license, according to prosecutors at the time. She’s best known for ‘The O.C.’, created by Josh Schwartz, with an ensemble that included Ben McKenzie, Adam Brody, Rachel Bilson, Peter Gallagher, and Kelly Rowan; the show follows a kid from Chino landing in an Orange County household and navigating friendships, romances, and family power dynamics.

On the film side, Barton appeared in ‘The Sixth Sense’, M. Night Shyamalan’s supernatural drama anchored by Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment, where intersecting encounters with the dead drive a tightly engineered twist narrative. ‘The O.C.’ blended teen melodrama with needle-drops and guest arcs, while ‘The Sixth Sense’ builds its plot through therapy sessions, spectral visitations, and a quiet detective thread that resolves in its final reveal.

Erika Sawajiri

Sawajiri was arrested in 2019 in Tokyo on suspicion of possessing MDMA; she later pleaded guilty, and in 2020 received an 18-month prison sentence suspended for three years. Many first saw her in the Fuji TV drama ‘1 Litre of Tears’, based on Aya Kitō’s memoir, co-starring Ryō Nishikido and Hiroko Yakushimaru, about a teenager facing a degenerative neurological illness and the family rhythms around her.

Her film work includes ‘Closed Note’, directed by Isao Yukisada with Yūko Takeuchi and Yūsuke Iseya, a Kyoto-set romance/drama in which a college student discovers a previous tenant’s diary and gradually uncovers a personal connection to its author. ‘1 Litre of Tears’ tracks school life, medical appointments, and diary entries as narrative anchors, while ‘Closed Note’ uses the found-journal device to braid present-day choices with a teacher’s past.

Noriko Sakai

Sakai was arrested in 2009 in Japan on suspicion of possession and stimulant-drug use; she later received an 18-month sentence suspended for three years. She starred in the television drama ‘Heaven’s Coin’, opposite Takao Osawa and Yutaka Takenouchi, a story about a deaf and mute young woman from Hokkaido whose relationship with a doctor is complicated by memory loss and family ties.

The series—sometimes referred to as ‘Heaven’s Coins’—spun off sequels and specials, with its theme songs performed by Sakai herself and a production pipeline at Nippon TV. Across its run, ‘Heaven’s Coin’ balances hospital cases, sibling dynamics, and city-country contrasts, while Sakai’s film credits include horror entries such as ‘Ju-on: The Grudge 2’, known for ensemble casting and a non-linear structure built from interlocking character vignettes.

Rhea Chakraborty

Chakraborty was arrested by India’s Narcotics Control Bureau in September 2020 in a probe linked to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput and later released on bail; in 2022, media reported that the NCB filed a charge sheet naming her as an accused for procurement and related allegations, while in 2023 the agency told India’s Supreme Court it would not challenge her bail. Her credits include ‘Sonali Cable’, a Mumbai-set story produced by Ramesh Sippy and Rohan Sippy, directed by Charudutt Acharya, with Ali Fazal, Anupam Kher, Smita Jaykar, Raghav Juyal, and Swanand Kirkire in key roles.

She also starred in ‘Jalebi’, produced by Mukesh and Mahesh Bhatt and directed by Pushpdeep Bhardwaj, a romance about former lovers re-encountering each other on a train journey that reframes their past. ‘Sonali Cable’ follows a small local internet outfit battling a corporate provider during a turf war—plotting that threads family obligations, neighborhood politics, and a David-versus-Goliath business fight—while ‘Jalebi’ uses compartment-by-compartment conversations to unfold a relationship in fragments.

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