Justin Bieber tour comes to Orlando tonight

If the photos published at gossip website TMZ.com are to be believed, Justin Bieber is experimenting with weed.

Bieber hasn't admitted to smoking pot (it's still illegal in most states), but the controversy highlights more growing pains for the 18-year-old pop sensation.

The photos apparently were taken after Bieber and actress Selena Gomez broke up after roughly two years. Turns out Gomez was getting her dating advice from none other than Taylor Swift, that poster child for the committed relationship.

Yeah, that breakup opens his schedule for frat-worthy house parties with supermodels, but everyone knows that kind of fun is just a superficial solution, part of the inevitable circle of life for adolescent stars.

When Bieber's "Believe" tour stops Friday, Jan. 25, at Orlando's Amway Center, the singer arrives as a bad boy or at least a bad-boy wannabe. But cut the guy some slack.

It can't be easy being Bieber.

After all, he has had to compete for attention with a woman, Orlando singer Dani Shay, who has built her own fledgling notoriety on being a Bieber look-alike. That can't make a guy feel good.

Of course, Bieber is arguably one of the most commercially successful pop stars on the planet. A bazillion YouTube hits paved the way for sales of 15 million albums. Bieber's seven-song 2009 debut, "My World," went platinum (for reaching 1 million in sales) and he became the first act to have seven singles from a debut album hit the Billboard chart.

His latest release, "Believe," became his third album to debut at No. 1. Entertainment Weekly praised the project as "the rare album that tries to be everything to everyone and largely succeeds."

In 2012, Forbes magazine ranked Bieber as the world's third most-powerful celebrity behind Jennifer Lopez and Oprah Winfrey, pegging his annual earnings at $55 million.

That success doesn't always translate in! to respec! t.

The Internet is littered with sites devoted to Bieber jokes. Some are relatively benign ("Who's that girl singing? Oh, wait. That's Justin Bieber") but many others cross the line into gratuitously hateful territory.

Earlier this year, Bieber cut short a telephone interview because a radio host made a joke about the possibility that One Direction's Harry Styles might be interested in dating Bieber's mother.

"I don't think you should worry about me," Bieber said before hanging up. "Worry about your mom, bro."

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