W.N.B.A. player and Olympian Brittney Griner detained in Russia for unclear drug charges

On Mar. 5, 2022, the Russian Federal Customs Service reported that they had detained an American basketball player after finding cartridges of hashish oil—a type of marijuana concentrate containing high THC levels—in their luggage as they traveled to an airport near Moscow. The service soon released video footage of the player going through airport security, and the traveler was quickly identified by Russian news agencies as Brittney Griner, an Olympic player and center for the Phoenix Mercury. Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, did not dispute these reports, though it has yet to be confirmed whether or not Griner was actually in possession of these cartridges. 

The customs service further stated that they would be opening a criminal case into Griner’s “large-scale” drug transportation, which could entail a prison sentence of up to ten years. The service also stated that the airport screening occurred in February, so it is unclear exactly how long Griner has been in detention in Russia. 

This would not be the first case of Russian officials treating American travelers more harshly under their own criminal jurisdiction. In 2020, United States Marine Trevor Reed was sentenced by the Russian courts to nine years in prison for charges of violence against police officers; colleagues of Reed still claim these charges to be erroneous. The Russian government might have targeted Griner—a beloved all-star player who has broken national records and accrued two Olympic gold medals—as a political maneuver. 

Griner was in Russia to compete for their UMMC team during the American offseason; this practice is especially common among players of the Women’s National Basketball Association as it enables them to earn more money, though it also means less rest and more time away from home; W.N.B.A. make meager salaries against their male counterparts (Griner is one of the few players who makes nearly as much as the maximum W.N.B.A. salary, $228,094, while members of the National Basketball League make upwards of $50 million). International female teams, by comparison, tend to have more federal and thus financial support, allowing for W.N.B.A. players to make upwards of one-million extra dollars by playing during the offseason. Approximately 70 players—nearly one-fourth of the entire roster—take this opportunity each year. 

Griner’s detainment is less representative of her own negligence (the United States Basketball stated on Twitter that “Brittney has always handled herself with the utmost professionalism during her long tenure with USA Basketball”), and more of a cesspool of political issues—both national and international—that lead to unjust criminal treatment overseas as well as the need for such dangerous travel in the first place. 

W.N.B.A. players have been traveling to Russia to play for years now with relative safety; although tensions between the United States and Russia are especially high now, the relationship between the nations has never been mellow. The fact that female players are required to use their allotted break period to earn even a small fraction of their male counterparts’ salaries is in itself an injustice. 

The specifics of Griner’s charges are also contentious. She has been playing for the UMMC Ekaterinburg team since 2015 and is therefore no stranger to the harsher travel guidelines inflicted upon American citizens. Why, then, would she make the mistake of bringing such a large amount of THC oil into a Russian airport? And, even if she is directly responsible for bringing these drug cartridges, why are W.N.B.A. players not given more detailed instruction on what they can and cannot bring as they travel between Russia and the United States?

The circumstances surrounding this event are nebulous, as is the accuracy of the charges. There is not enough information quite yet to determine whether or not Russian authorities treated Griner more harshly for political reasons, but, given their history of wrongly detaining high-profile U.S. citizens, it is not out of the question. 

Regardless of the true motives behind the arrest, Griner’s detainment makes clear the need for more equitable treatment of female basketball players; neither Griner nor any other W.N.B.A. player should feel required to play overseas in order to support themselves and, even if they do choose to travel during their offseason, they should be properly informed of the risks involved. 

Russian authorities have not disclosed how long Griner will remain in detention. The UMMC team would be doing themselves a great disservice by restricting Griner from play, but if cases such as Reed’s are any sort of example, it will likely be quite a while before Griner is able to play basketball on or off Russian soil.