Brittney Griner's "Coming Home"

WNBA star Brittney Griner has released a book, "Coming Home," about her ordeal of imprisonment in Russia after being caught with two cannabis vape pens while entering the country in February 2022. 

The book, co-written by celebrity biographer Michelle Burford, starts with a description of Griner hastily packing to travel to Russia, where she played basketball for seven years, earning much more than she did in the US and, as revealed in the book and her interviews about it, being treated like a star. In her haste to pack her luggage, Griner neglected to remove two nearly empty vape pens containing cannabis, for which she had a doctor's recommendation in Arizona. 

As she tells it, at the airport, a screener gestured to her to unzip her bags. She writes.

"I'd worked my way through the backpack when I opened one last zip. I slid in my hand and felt something inside. The agent stared as I slowly lifted out a cartridge with cannabis oil. Fuck. I'm a licensed cannabis user in the United States, with a medical marijuana card issued by my doctor. He prescribed [sic] cannabis years ago, to help me cope with my debilitating sports injuries. In Arizona cannabis is legal. In Russia it's forbidden. I knew that. Honest to God, I just totally forgot the pen was in my bag. The moment I felt it in that pocket, my stomach sank." 

Griner doesn't write about her use of cannabis or how it helps her, but she does give some insight into how she was treated as an "addict" in Russia, where she was sent to be interviewed by a psychiatrist, who asked her, "When did your drug problem begin?" The book continues:

I sighed. "I don't have a drug problem," I said. 

"Then why were you using cannabis?" she asked. 

"Because it helps with my pain," I said. Though cannabis was illegal in Russia, I told her, the United States and many European countries—including Spain, Italy, France, and Germany—acknowledges medical marijuana as a safe, effective, and legal medication for pain relief. She glared at me like I'd just told her the earth was flat.

Two things I'd figured out about Russian officials: First, cannabis was the devil in their eyes. They saw all forms of cannabis—marijuana, hashish, hash oil, edibles, sprays—like they saw crack cocaine....As far as this psych doctor and others were concerned, the vape pens in my bag didn't simply mean I was forgetful. They meant I was a crackhead....Even before I could pee in a cup, the doctor was like, "You addict?"  

Griner in the "defendants cage" at her trial. 

At her trial, her attorney Maria Blagovolina told the court that a physician gave Griner recommendations for the use of medical cannabis, and submitted the doctor's letter authorizing cannabis to treat her severe chronic pain caused by sports injuries. 

Blagovolina further told the court that Griner had once been in a wheelchair due to her injuries, and that her permission to use cannabis was authorized by the Arizona Department of Health. 

On the witness stand (but not in her book), Griner said, "The benefits from medical cannabis definitely outweigh the painkillers that they prescribe. The painkillers have really bad side effects. Medical cannabis, there are honestly no side effects that harm you." 

But no leniency was granted due to her medical use. Griner admitted to unintentionally bringing the vape pens into the country and was sentenced to nine years in prison. She was quickly designated as "wrongfully detained" by the US State Department, and public outcry followed. 

NBA champ Steph Curry and Megan Rapinoe—the soccer star with a Portland-based CBD company—spoke of Griner's plight at the ESPY Awards in July, the same month that Rapinoe was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom wearing a blazer with the initials ‘BG’ embroidered onto the lapel in tribute to Griner. 

A prisoner swap was negotiated for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout, and Griner was released on December 8, 2022, after serving less than a year in prison. The swap left behind her fellow prisoner Paul Whelan, who she hoped she would see on the plane after he was released with her. Instead, she shook the "soft" outstretched hand of Bout as they walked past each other during the exchange. 

Painting by Bob Freyer as part of the 
"Make a Marc" show in April 2023

Griner, who has pledged to work to free other American detainees, briefly mentions others who are designed "wrongfully detained" as part of the Bring Our Families Home campaign in "Coming Home." Not mentioned is Marc Fogel, the 62-year-old Pennsylvania schoolteacher who is serving a 14-year sentence for bringing in a small amount of medical marijuana into Russia in 2021, the same "crime" for which Griner was convicted. Meanwhile, Whelan's brother reports Paul is "disintegrating" in prison, and Fogel's family reports that his back problems are worsening under detention.

Griner's book is landing just after the announcement that the DEA has agreed to HHS's recommendation to re-designate cannabis as a Schedule III drug, finally taking it out of the strictest Schedule I category of drugs with no medical use. Yet so far, I can find no interviewer who has probed at all into Griner's cannabis use as she continues a media blitz for her book that is already a bestseller. 

The book also lands just after the stellar season performance of University of Iowa basketballer Caitlin Clark, and the revelation that her salary in the WNBA as its top draft pick will be less that 1% of that of her male counterpart in the NBA, highlighting the situation that drove Griner to play overseas. 

Griner was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine last year. We hope she will use her influence to advance justice for women and cannabis prisoners.