The imprisonment of WNBA star Brittney Griner in Russia made the headlights. The White House is making efforts for bringing the Olympic gold medallist home. This creates a division in the population on the topic. Should the USA focus on foreign laws, or should it tidy things up in its own legal system?
While the United States is angry at the Russian government for the 8-year fine, Musk and other public figures have called for checking the height of the penalties for possession of marijuana in the States first.
While Biden Makes Efforts To Free Griner Elon Musk Urges Him To Take Care Of His ‘Yard’ First – Shouldn’t We Free People In America First?
Elon Musk made an appearance on the “Full Send” podcast where he spoke about the issue with marijuana that the USA currently has. According to him, it is completely hypocritical to ask for the release of Brittney Garner on the marijuana charges in Russia, while marijuana remains illegal in the USA.
“If the president is working so hard to free someone who is in jail in Russia for some weed, shouldn’t we free people in America?” – Musk rhetorically asked. “There are people in jail in America for the same stuff. Shouldn’t we free them too? My opinion is that people should not be in jail for non-violent drug crimes.”
Brittney Garner, purposely or not, tried to smuggle marijuana into Russia. When she was caught at the airport she was immediately imprisoned and sent to trial. Russian law system convicted Griner of drug possession and drug smuggling. She got nine years of prison time and a financial fine of $16000.
According to the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, the United States is now pursuing a prisoner swap with Russia. They are in process of swapping both Brittney Garner and Paul Whelan for two Russian convicts doing time in the US.
“We put forward, as you know, a substantial proposal that Russia should engage with us on. And what Foreign Minister Lavrov said this morning and said publicly is that they are prepared to engage through channels we’ve established to do just that, and we’ll be pursuing.” – Blinken says at the press conference on Friday.
During the podcast episode, Elon Musk spoke about how he is not so fond of marijuana use. He said that it compromises his productivity and work. However, he added that he doesn’t find it harmful in any way.
“I find weed’s not that good for productivity.” – Musk said. “I do actually have to make the rockets work and the cars work and make the factories work.”
Musk could be seen smoking marijuana in one episode of the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast. However, even though on this one occasion he did smoke, he claims that he is not a regular user. His line of work includes a confidential part since he is doing projects for the United States through his SpaceX company. As a head of the company, he is prone to regular drug tests.
“I didn’t think I’d get that much backlash. The consequences for me and for SpaceX were not good.” – Musk says. “Because it’s still federally illegal. It was pretty nutty, actually, because I had to have random drug tests and stuff after that to prove I’m not a drug addict.”
