WNBA Star Brittney Griner Freed from Russian Prison

Sports-loving cannabis users got an early holiday present with the surprise announcement of pro basketball player and Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner’s release. Arrested in Russia in February, 2022, where she was playing off-season the Russian Premier League team UMMC Ekaterinburg, for the crime of smuggling hash oil vape cartridges. Initially sentenced to nine years in a female prison colony, Griner’s release was announced on December 8th by President Biden.

This announcement marked the end of a long and painfully uncertain legal and geopolitical tug of war that intersected with many different issues of justice, sports and international drug policy. During her trial, Griner admitted to bringing the cartridges into the country, but insisted that she did so accidentally, being in a rush to pack for her flight. (Griner was detained on a layover in Moscow, on her way to Ekaterinburg, when her bags were searched.)

While her defense did present a doctor’s note from her home state of Arizona stating her use of cannabis for medical purposes was for chronic pain, this wasn’t enough to stave off a guilty verdict, nor could it do much on appeal except reduce her sentence slightly from the original decade she was given. However, behind the scenes, the United States continued to push not only for her release, but for that of Paul Whelan, a Canadian-born US Marine arrested in 2018 and convicted of spying in 2020. Although a range of options were presented to Russian negotiators, they ultimately decided to treat Whelan’s case differently. Another cannabis prisoner who was arrested in Russia shortly after Griner, Marc Fogel, is still serving a fourteen-year sentence in Russia, and unlike Whelan and Griner, has not been classified as wrongfully detained.

The response from cannabis advocates both in and out of Congress reflected both relief and continued demands for freedom for cannabis prisoners, abroad and at home. “If Joe Biden and Congress agree that Brittney Griner should be set free, then they must free all of our friends and family locked up for marijuana here at home too. #ThatsTheTweet,” tweeted the national cannabis advocacy group NORML. Member of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus Representative Earl Blumenauer touched on the role of medical cannabis in professional sports in his remarks: “Thousands of athletes self-medicate with medical cannabis, and they should be able to do so without discriminatory interference from authorities, either government or sports bureaucracy.” Republicans in Fogel’s home state of Pennsylvania rued Fogel’s continued detainment and what they considered neglect of his plight. “I urge the administration to include Mr. Fogel in any future negotiations, and I am once again calling on the State Department to further designate Mr. Fogel as ‘wrongfully detained,'” said Rep. Mike Kelly. “He is serving 14 years for possessing 17 grams—or just over half an ounce—of medical marijuana. That is egregious, even under Russia’s current laws.” Counterbalancing that was overall satisfaction at the end of Griner’s long exile. “We are grateful for the long-overdue release of Brittney Griner after months of detention amid an increasingly uncertain and dangerous political environment. MPP vows to continue our fight to legalize cannabis and free those unfairly imprisoned for possession right here in the United States,” Toi Hutchinson, CEO of the Marijuana Policy Project, told Marijuana Moment. “We will not stop fighting until both the plant and the people are freed.”

Russian state TV filmed the Bout-Griner prisoner transfer, which took place on December 8th in the United Arab Emirates. Griner’s wife Cherelle hinted at a long recovery period for Brittney, so a return to basketball remains uncertain for her.