Foreign Affairs

Eugene

(66,444 posts) Fri Oct 3, 2025, 11:40 AM 2 hrs ago

'I use cannabis as medicine': the US basketball player facing execution in Indonesia over $400 of gummies

Source: The Guardian

‘I use cannabis as medicine’: the US basketball player facing execution in Indonesia over $400 of gummies

Unlike his fellow basketball player Brittney Griner, Jarred Shaw has received scant attention after being arrested for a drugs offence overseas

Mattha Busby
Fri 3 Oct 2025 10.00 BST
Last modified on Fri 3 Oct 2025 13.09 BST

When Jarred Shaw, an American basketball player in Indonesia, stepped down to the lobby in his apartment complex earlier this year to collect a package containing illegally imported cannabis gummies, he thought that the medicine to ease his Crohn’s disease had arrived.

It had – but so too had 10 undercover police officers. A video on social media shows Shaw, wearing a black T-shirt and shorts, shouting for help as the swarm of officers move to apprehend him.

The 35-year-old from Dallas, Texas, is facing the possibility of the death penalty or a long spell behind bars. He was a key member of Prawira Bandung, who won the Indonesian Basketball League (IBL) in 2023, and he has scored more than 1,000 points over three seasons in the country. But now he is languishing in pre-trial detention and is banned for life from the IBL.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/oct/03/jarred-shaw-drugs-arrest-indonesia-basketball

2 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

'I use cannabis as medicine': the US basketball player facing execution in Indonesia over $400 of gummies (Original Post) Eugene 2 hrs ago OP

Very unfortunate snowybirdie 2 hrs ago #1

Sounds like he knew it was illegal MichMan 1 hr ago #2

snowybirdie

(6,368 posts)

1. Very unfortunate

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Fri Oct 3, 2025, 12:00 PM

2 hrs ago

But when in a foreign country you have to follow its laws. He worked there and should have known. Hope he can get help from his representatives in Congress.

MichMan

(16,027 posts)

2. Sounds like he knew it was illegal

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Fri Oct 3, 2025, 12:21 PM

1 hr ago

During the off-season Shaw lives in Thailand, where cannabis is subject to more liberal laws. He says he had endured the pain of going without cannabis in previous campaigns in Indonesia but says that health reasons spurred him to import the intercepted supply of 132 gummies this year. “I made a stupid mistake,” he says.

Indonesian police have said that Shaw sent text messages to his teammates saying that he would share some of the cannabis candies with them. “What they consider drugs, I consider medicine,” says Shaw. “It’s just different cultures.”

Did his teammates also have Crohn's?

Reply to this discussion