Justin Bieber Smokes Weed and You Don’t Have to Be Cool With It

Justin Bieber's big week continues, as the singer counts down the hours until his Purpose release on November 12: He's announced a tour in support of the album, he's holding court on Ellen every day and now he's covering another magazine.

His new i-D magazine story, much like his features in Complex and Billboard over the past few weeks, touches on his turbulent-but-successful transition from tween idol to grown-up pop star with a radio hit that adults listen to without shame. As Bieber himself notes of his post-puberty singing voice the new interview, "I think it's more relatable now. When I had that young voice it was hard for people to connect. Dudes can listen to it now and say, 'Yeah, I like that new Bieber song'."

But in recounting the now-thoroughly-examined story of his darker days, he does note one surprisingly positive aspect of the time when he was, as he put it, "numbing my pain with other stuff." But getting super stoned provided valuable space to reflect, he says. "You just figure out what you want to be and who you don't want to be. You have all these questions and you start answering these questions."

So yeah, Justin's a pot smoker and he's not "Sorry," though he doesn't expect everyone to be okay with that. "I mean, honestly, it's just about perception. At the end of the day, there are people who don't think that's good. And if they don't feel that's good then I don't want to make people feel uncomfortable."

The singer likely realizes he still has plenty of young and impressionable fans, as well as less-impressionable fans who may still blanch at Instagram pics of Bieber looking, as they say, "mad faded." "So I'm not going to put it in their face. You'll never see me smoking. Because that is not who I am. If it's something I do then it's something I do, but it's not who I am and what I want to put on blast for the world to see. Like, who's Snoop Dogg? That's the dude who smokes a lot of weed. That's become his identity almost. And I don't want my identity to be anything but who I am and what my music is portraying me to be."

There you have it: Despite his enthusiasm for stoner-dom, High Times is one magazine cover you won't catch him on anytime soon.

For more of Justin's thoughts on his onetime pet monkey (remember that?), working with Kanye West and more, read the full story over at i-D.