I was chalking up my cue stick at a hole-in-the-wall billiards hall as my buddy came back from the bar to hand me a beer. Just teenagers, we were staying with the same host family in St. Petersburg, Russia, as part of our high school’s living-language trip during spring break in 2004. I took a swig of my cold beverage, and, as an aftertaste of something earthy heightened my senses, I tilted the bottle in my hand to look down at the label. There was a silhouette of what appeared to be a child working in a farm field.

My buddy asked the question before I could: “Is there weed in this beer?”

Reflecting now on my experience abroad, a foreign substance in my beer doesn’t add up—knowing the country’s drug laws. But I was convinced back then and have to stick to my story now. Good thing I didn’t try to export a six-pack on the return flight home, especially considering what we know about Brittney Griner’s travel experience.

The WNBA star, who was arrested on smuggling charges for traveling with vape cartridges in February, was released Dec. 8 in a prisoner swap for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. The news came with mixed reactions from fellow Americans. Commenting on Griner’s release, Green Thumb Industries CEO Ben Kovler tweeted “In exchange for an arms dealer…” The replies to his tweet further illustrate the range of emotional responses to this news.

More whataboutisms circulated among those wanting Paul Whelan’s release. Whelan is a Canadian-born former U.S. Marine who was arrested in 2018 and is being held on espionage charges with a 16-year sentence in Russia.

As Biden said in his remarks about Griner’s release, “we’ve not forgotten about Paul Whelan,” whom the Trump administration was also unsuccessful in negotiating a release. “This was not a choice of which American to bring home,” Biden said. “Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s.”

Despite Whelan being locked up for four years, most Americans have been silent on advocating for his release until now. Whelan’s brother, David Whelan, said Biden “made the right decision” to bring Griner home, back to the U.S., where cannabis remains as federally illegal as it is in Russia.

-Tony Lange, Associate Editor

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