WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner was arrested last month at a Moscow airport after Russian authorities said a search of her luggage revealed vape cartridges.
The Russian Customs Service said Saturday that the cartridges were identified as containing oil derived from cannabis, which could carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The customs service identified the person arrested as a player for the U.S. women’s team and did not specify the date of her arrest. Russian media reported the player was Griner, and her agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, did not dispute those reports.
We are closer to war with Russia than we have been at any time in the last 59 years (or 48 years). There is no diplomatic leverage to use in resolving the case. Anybody with an IQ above temperature of a refrigerator knows that there is no independent justice system in Russia. If the Putin regime wants her to do ten years in a Russian prison, that's going to be what happens.
If she was smuggling cannabis or a cannabis product that was illegal in Russia, why SHOULD the US intervene? Because of her celebrity status? Would they intervene if it were you?
ReplyDeleteI dislike with an intensity bordering upon emotionally irrational to be a hard-case, but as an Old Outlaw, and Outsider, outside the "protection" of the "law", this is a great example of "poor planning on your part does not necessarily constitute a crisis on mine." One of the cardinal rules of staying "outside" ~ not going back on the "inside" ~ is Don't Do Things That Will Get You Put Back Inside. When I go to visit my kids 'n grandkids, I leave the vapes in MA. It's easy.
ReplyDeleteOR is no worries, I can get cartridges there in less than half an hour of stepping off the plane (hellufalot cheaper too). MN on the other hand is not a legal state, though weed can be found there it's best to do without for a few days. Don't tempt the hard-cases.
It's the "law," you can't just break it cuz you're a 'Murican, or it's "legal" is some sub-sections of 'Murica. And I would expect, would anticipate, given the current political climate that if I were a 'Murican tourist it would apply as equally to me as a famous sportsball player.
That's it's a dumb-ass law is beside the point. Hope for the best ...
She’s sort of a celebrity in Russia. She gets paid a million dollars a year to play there. And, given what is going on between Russia and most of the “free world”, I would not be hasty to assume that those THC vape cartridges were hers.
ReplyDeleteThere you go again Cap'n, thinkin' like a lawyer.
ReplyDeleteYou are, of course, correct ...
Cannabis is still illegal at the federal level, most other
ReplyDeletecountries as well.
Generally going to Russia as Black and gay, is waving a stick
at the bear. They do not approve of gay, they also have race
issues. Doesn't help if she is getting paid by those on the
Russian side (breach of contract, why pay!). Same if someone
elsewhere wants to cause legal pain for her.
On many levels that brings opportunities of the painful and
wrong kind.
It why the TSA locks (everyone has a key) are a scary thing.
Like TB said, your going into a hostile zone (foreign land
with foreign laws) its wise to pay attention to how they
might hurt you and how you can easily hurt yourself. For
most if not all cases border crossings with contraband is
considered bad juju.
I believe she is cooked, money will be lost, time will be
served, the case might help with where as they have some
unpleasant places, and how long.
Eck!
I also wonder whether the contraband was actually hers, or existed at all. If so, that was a grave error on her part. I sort of come from where Ten Bears is coming from, although I have been sober for almost fourteen years. I grew up in Humboldt County. I have friends and close family who have done hard prison time for weed.
ReplyDeleteThe huge billboards advertising weed delivery in Oakland and Berkeley didn't exactly freak me out, but did sort of rattle me a little when I first saw them. I wondered what my friend Jack who did 23 months in Soledad North for selling a half ounce of leafers to an undercover pig would think about them?
-Doug in Sugar Pine