{"id":4888,"date":"2022-03-16T23:07:30","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T23:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/wp-home\/?p=197630"},"modified":"2022-03-16T23:07:30","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T23:07:30","slug":"why-cant-america-defend-brittney-griner-as-if-she-owned-the-vapes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/?p=4888","title":{"rendered":"Why can\u2019t America defend Brittney Griner as if she owned the vapes?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <title>Why can&#8217;t America defend Brittney Griner as if she owned the vapes? | Leafly<\/title>     <!-- This is Index Exchange, a script\/\/3rd-party integration that interjects GAM. It needs to be 'ahead' of GTM in the DOM, which comes from Cephalopod. GTM loads GAM. 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You&#8217;re not old enough to use Leafly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"hidden age-gate__loading\">Redirecting you to<span class=\"redirect-domain\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-xs mt-auto\">By accessing this site, you accept<br \/>\nthe <a class=\"py-xl\" data-testid=\"tou-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/info\/terms-of-use\">Terms of Use<\/a><br \/>\nand <a class=\"py-xl\" data-testid=\"pp-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/info\/privacy-policy\">Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"container my-xl\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col md:col-9\" id=\"article-content\">\n<h4 id=\"h-the-haymaker-is-leafly-senior-editor-bruce-barcott-s-opinion-column-on-cannabis-news-and-culture\"><em>The Haymaker is Leafly Senior Editor Bruce Barcott\u2019s opinion column on cannabis news and culture. <\/em><\/h4>\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Tomorrow marks WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner\u2019s first full month of imprisonment in Russia. Sadly, it may not be her last month spent behind bars.<\/p>\n<p>With every passing day the Russian invasion of Ukraine grows bloodier, US-Russian hostilities get nastier, and Griner\u2019s path to freedom becomes more difficult to envision.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img alt=\"haymaker-column-logo\" class=\"wp-image-172448 has-ll lazyload\" width=\"385\" height=\"180\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/why-cant-america-defend-brittney-griner-as-if-she-owned-the-vapes.png,compress&amp;w=550 550w, https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/why-cant-america-defend-brittney-griner-as-if-she-owned-the-vapes.png,compress&amp;w=740 740w, https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/why-cant-america-defend-brittney-griner-as-if-she-owned-the-vapes.png,compress&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/why-cant-america-defend-brittney-griner-as-if-she-owned-the-vapes.png,compress&amp;w=1480 1480w\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Meanwhile, the American media\u2019s coverage of Griner has begun to coalesce around a narrative of innocent entrapment. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/03\/14\/sport\/brittney-griner-arrest-russia-jonathan-franks-cmd-spt-intl\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CNN<\/a> recently headlined her arrest as \u201cthe most audacious hostage taking by a state imaginable.\u201d The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/sports\/2022\/03\/10\/brittney-griner-russian-prison-wnba\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Washington Post<\/a> quoted a former US ambassador to Poland who suggested the two-time Olympic champion \u201ccould have been framed and targeted for the crime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would be just like the Russians to do this,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Could Griner have been set up by Russian officials? Certainly. Nations hostile to the United States have been known to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2016\/01\/16\/463293941\/iran-says-its-releasing-four-iranian-american-detainees-in-prison-swap\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">frame visiting Americans<\/a> to gain political leverage. But those victims are typically journalists or religious missionaries, irritants in the eyes of the state. Griner is a superstar athlete who plays for a team that\u2019s the pride of Russian basketball. In three of the past five seasons, Griner has led UMMC Ekaterinburg to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fiba.basketball\/euroleaguewomen\/20-21\/history\">EuroLeague Women\u2019s championship<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote has-text-align-center\">\n<p>National media outlets need to distance the WNBA star from cannabis in order to defend her. That\u2019s old-school Drug War stigma in action.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>So it\u2019s odd to see these American media outlets bend over backwards to portray Griner as the victim of state skullduggery. Buried within their reports is an unstated assumption that Griner, a seasoned professional athlete, wouldn\u2019t dream of using or traveling with vape cartridges. It\u2019s as if CNN, the Washington Post, and ESPN need to disassociate Griner from cannabis in order to defend her.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what almost nobody is talking about: It is a real possibility that Griner owned the vape carts that the Russians claim they found in her luggage. But to entertain the notion is seen as traitorous, playing into the hands of the Russians, besmirching the reputation of a basketball and social justice hero.<\/p>\n<p>And that, my friends, is good old-fashioned Drug War stigma in action.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/news\/health\/leagues-listening-pro-athletes\" class=\"wp-block-leafly-blocks-leafly-single-inline-block leafly-inline-related-story\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"border border-deep-green-alt border-l-0 border-r-0 my-xl p-md font-bold\">\n<p>Related<\/p>\n<p>Pro athletes eager to embrace cannabis, but are leagues listening?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a> <\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-the-latest-on-brittney-griner-s-situation\">The latest on Brittney Griner\u2019s situation<\/h2>\n<p>News of Griner\u2019s arrest first leaked out on March 5. But subsequent reports indicate she was initially detained by Russian Federal Customs Service agents at Moscow\u2019s Sheremetyevo Airport on Feb. 17, one week before Russian forces invaded Ukraine. <\/p>\n<p>A statement from the Russian Customs Service, reported in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/03\/05\/sports\/basketball\/russia-brittney-griner.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">New York Times<\/a>, claimed that an inspection of Griner\u2019s luggage \u201cconfirmed the presence of vapes with specifically smelling liquid, and an expert determined that the liquid was cannabis oil (hash oil), which is a narcotic substance.\u201d In Russia, bringing hash oil into the country is a crime punishable by 10 years in prison.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner was arrested in Russia last month at a Moscow airport after a search of her luggage revealed vape cartridges. Footage released Saturday shows the WNBA star going through security at a Moscow airport, and her luggage being searched. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Tuubab8Oko\">pic.twitter.com\/Tuubab8Oko<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 CBS News (@CBSNews) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CBSNews\/status\/1500269963575242756?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 6, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Griner\u2019s advocates are working behind the scenes to secure her release. Rep. Colin Allred, a member of Congress from Texas, has been in touch with US State Department officials. (Griner grew up in Houston and attended college at Baylor University in Waco.) Rep. Sheila Lee, who represents Houston, brought up Griner\u2019s case with President Biden earlier this week. But with US and NATO officials scrambling to help Ukraine\u2014while not setting off World War III\u2014the plight of a single American caught in a weed-at-the-border incident may not be Priority One in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-many-angles-to-this-story\">Many angles to this story<\/h2>\n<p>There are so many dynamics at play in Griner\u2019s case that it\u2019s hard to know where to start. There\u2019s the fact that top players like Griner, Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi, and Sue Bird can earn four times their WNBA salaries by performing in the off-season for Russian teams\u2014some of which are owned by Vladimir Putin\u2019s oligarch chums.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s the difficult position of a player like Griner, an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ rights, living and working in a country that has outlawed the \u201cpropaganda of nontraditional sexual relations.\u201d Under the vague cloak of that cruel law, Griner\u2019s own marriage to her wife Cherelle might be considered a criminal act.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also the current geopolitical conflict over Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, which has effectively trapped Griner behind enemy lines at the worst possible moment.<\/p>\n<p>All of these angles have been addressed\u2014by CNN, by the Post, by national sports platforms and local Texas TV news stations.<\/p>\n<p>You know what hasn\u2019t been addressed? The cannabis.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-fact-pro-athletes-use-cannabis\">Fact: Pro athletes use cannabis<\/h2>\n<p>Look, we all see the world through the lens of our own interest and experience. The Washington Post looks at Brittany Griner and sees politics. ESPN looks at Griner and sees sports. Leafly sees a pro athlete who, like many others, may be using cannabis to manage her mental and physical health.<\/p>\n<p>But why are we the only outlet to consider the cannabis? <\/p>\n<p>Seriously. On our site and podcast, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/news\/politics\/brittney-griner-is-not-alone-heres-why-pro-athletes-are-using-cannabis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Josiah Hesse<\/a>, the author of a book about athletes using cannabis, wrote that upwards of 80% to 90% of athletes in some sports use cannabis before, after, and sometimes during competition. Former Denver Nuggets star Kenyon Martin once estimated that 85% of all NBA players use cannabis. Hesse found that athletes use cannabis to rest, recover, and maintain their mental and physical health over the course of a punishing season of work. Many of them turn to cannabis to protect their health from the ravages of opioids or other liver-destroying drugs. <\/p>\n<p>Why would we assume WNBA players are any different? <\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/news\/politics\/brittney-griner-is-not-alone-heres-why-pro-athletes-are-using-cannabis\" class=\"wp-block-leafly-blocks-leafly-single-inline-block leafly-inline-related-story\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"border border-deep-green-alt border-l-0 border-r-0 my-xl p-md font-bold\">\n<p>Related<\/p>\n<p>Brittney Griner is not alone: Here\u2019s why pro athletes are using cannabis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a> <\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-life-in-a-legal-state\">Life in a legal state<\/h2>\n<p>Consider this. Brittney Griner lives and works most of the year in Phoenix, Arizona. Last fall she took the Phoenix Mercury to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/sports\/wnba\/mercury\/2021\/10\/09\/after-seven-year-wait-phoenix-mercury-earn-shot-fourth-wnba-title\/6074229001\/\">WNBA finals<\/a>, where they lost to the Chicago Sky. That long finals run followed a year in which she played a difficult Covid-racked EuroLeague season for Ekaterinburg, then <a href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/10009908-olympic-basketball-2021-team-usa-beats-japan-to-win-womens-gold-medal\">won gold<\/a> with Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics. The previous year Griner had withdrawn from the WNBA\u2019s Covid bubble in order to address <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/wnba\/story\/_\/id\/30834879\/phoenix-mercury-brittney-griner-feels-amazing-ready-roll-addressing-mental-health-issues\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">her own physical and mental health issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In Arizona, cannabis products have been legal for all adults since Jan. 2021. Is it crazy to imagine she might have found some mental or physical relief by using legal cannabis? Frankly, it\u2019s kind of crazy to imagine she didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Those of us who enjoy cannabis in legal states know many things that people who live in prohibition states don\u2019t. We know that it\u2019s easy to forget how insanely illegal cannabis still remains in other states and countries\u2014because in a legal state, cannabis is as ordinary as beer, wine, or Advil. <\/p>\n<p>In most states, airport TSA agents don\u2019t even check for cannabis anymore. If Griner kept a couple of vape cartridges in her toiletry kit alongside a toothbrush, tweezers, and ibuprofen\u2014like a normal adult\u2014as she traveled to away games during the WNBA season, it might have slipped her mind that crossing an international border with that same kit could land her in jail.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/news\/politics\/flying-with-cbd-tsa-says-its-cool\" class=\"wp-block-leafly-blocks-leafly-single-inline-block leafly-inline-related-story\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"border border-deep-green-alt border-l-0 border-r-0 my-xl p-md font-bold\">\n<p>Related<\/p>\n<p>Flying With CBD? TSA Says It\u2019s Cool<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>It happens. It\u2019s happened to friends of mine. It even happened to me once, years ago. As my fellow passengers readied for landing in Toronto, I remembered a handful of infused gummies stashed in my backpack to help me sleep on the plane. Result: Your man enjoyed a mellow stroll through the 416 that afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>This is what confounds those of us who live in legal states and countries. Cannabis prohibition <em>makes no sense<\/em>. Millions of people\u2014including professional athletes\u2014enjoy it in good health every day.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-good-people-and-great-athletes-smoke-marijuana\">Good people and great athletes smoke marijuana <\/h2>\n<p>And yet when that enjoyment spills out into the light of day, institutions like CNN, the Washington Post, and ESPN turn away\u2014and worse. One \u201cexpert\u201d quoted by CNN framed the vape cart accusation as if it were libelous. \u201cThis is being reported as if people are taking these allegations seriously,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that\u2019s a huge mistake to report these allegations as if they\u2019re true or even are likely to be true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In other words, to consider the possibility that Brittney Griner actually carried a couple of vape carts on a business trip is to besmirch her reputation and play into the hands of those dirty Russians.<\/p>\n<p>Underlying that opinion is a foundation of stigma. As the notorious cannabis-obsessed Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump\u2019s first attorney general, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/wonk\/wp\/2016\/11\/18\/trumps-pick-for-attorney-general-good-people-dont-smoke-marijuana\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">once put it<\/a>: \u201cGood people don\u2019t smoke marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If nothing else, Brittney Griner\u2019s unfortunate predicament may help some Americans wake up to the truth: Good people do smoke marijuana.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll go further. Millions of good people\u2014and great athletes\u2014enjoy marijuana. So do people who may not be so good. And you know what? Bad people shouldn\u2019t be thrown in prison for marijuana either. Let\u2019s defend Brittney Griner <em>and<\/em> cannabis. Because nobody deserves to be arrested for looking after their health or bringing a little more joy into their life. <\/p>\n<div class=\"my-xxl wp-block-leafly-blocks-leafly-related-articles\">\n<p><h2>Athletes and cannabis<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"author-box\" class=\"p-lg my-xxl bg-white rounded border border-light-grey elevation-low\">\n<div class=\"mb-lg\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/why-cant-america-defend-brittney-griner-as-if-she-owned-the-vapes.jpg\" alt=\"Bruce Barcott's Bio Image\" class=\"lazyload inline-block mr-md rounded-full border border-light-grey\"> <\/p>\n<p>Bruce Barcott<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"text-sm\">Leafly Senior Editor Bruce Barcott oversees news, investigations, and feature projects. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and author of Weed the People: The Future of Legal Marijuana in America.<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"text-sm font-bold underline text-green\" href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/news\/author\/bruce-barcott\">View Bruce Barcott&#8217;s articles<\/a> <\/div>\n<div class=\"leafly-sailthru-signup p-lg my-xl bg-white rounded elevation-low border border-light-grey\">\n<p class=\"text-xs pt-lg\">By submitting this form, you will be subscribed to news and promotional emails from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\">Leafly<\/a> and you agree to Leafly&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/company\/tos\">Terms of Service<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/company\/privacy-policy\">Privacy Policy<\/a>. You can unsubscribe from Leafly email messages anytime.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!-- Chartbeat --> <!-- End Chartbeat -->  <!--\nPerformance optimized by W3 Total Cache. Learn more: https:\/\/www.boldgrid.com\/w3-total-cache\/ Served from: _ @ 2022-03-17 08:18:41 by W3 Total Cache\n--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why can&#8217;t America defend Brittney Griner as if she owned the vapes? | Leafly Link copied to your clipboard Leafly Leafly \u00ae Loading\u2026 Where are you from? noyes Remember me for 30 days. I confirm that this is not a shared device. Darn! You&#8217;re not old enough to use Leafly. Redirecting you to By accessing this site, you accept the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The Haymaker is Leafly Senior Editor Bruce Barcott\u2019s opinion column on cannabis news and culture. Tomorrow marks WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner\u2019s first full month of imprisonment in Russia. Sadly, it may not be her&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marijuana_information"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/why-cant-america-defend-brittney-griner-as-if-she-owned-the-vapes.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}