Are there no Americans left with rational thought?
If you go to a different country, and break a law, you're responsible. You can't just say oops. She brought drugs across an international border. She is 100% at fault.
Now what if she was a Dutch national traveling to the USA and did the exact same thing. A small amount of marijuana. Microscopic amount. Flying into a legal state even, say Colorado as Port of Entry. She'd GO TO FEDERAL PRISON. It's a federal crime, the carry a Class 1 scheduled narcotic into the USA. She could be sitting in the US prisons for 25 years.
And the US does this to people all the time. Sometimes if you're the proper shade of immigrant, they'll chastise you and let you go. Or chastise you, cancel your visa, ban you from the country for 5 or 10 years (or forever) and fly you back to your home country. But often, you are arrested and charged.
1: No she wouldn't. Federal law enforcement doesn't pursue weed charges anymore. Thus Biden making a big deal out of pardoning all weed charges and everyone pointing out that there is literally no one in federal prison for weed.
2: They found an empty cartridge in her luggage. That was the law she "admitted to breaking."
That's not true. Federal law enforcement does pursue weed charges, as it's still a scheduled substance. Biden also did not pardon all weed charges, only some simple possession cases. Where are you getting your information from?
If the federal government was actually treating weed sale and possession like a drug crime, half the state governors would be in jail for criminal conspiracy and every dispensary's accounts would be frozen.
There is no one in federal prison for possession alone. Other charges, sure, and pigs going to pig on charges, but in 2022 when Biden pushed out the last round of pardons and expungements there was literally not one person in federal prison for possession. They also will not arrest growers or farmers (though they will confiscate it under some circumstances)
Now, remind me.
What "crime" were you whining about her, or your hypothetical Dutch tourist, committing again?
You completely misunderstand bringing control substances, even residue, across a federal border. The US CBP absolutely does charge and prosecute for marijuana. CBP is like the TSA of border crossings, part of Homeland Security. They do not F around with drugs, even marijuana. Heck they'll throw grandma in jail for not having her prescriptions in the proper containers.
It annoys me that something as stupid as a marijuana vape gave Russia an excuse to secure the release of Viktor Bout without giving us Paul Whelan in return.
Frankly, Griner should've been the one to bear the costs of her fuck-up, not Whelan.
I think the official US policy is and should be that US lives are more important than maintaining control of political prisoners. It's unfair to say the Griner wasn't "worth it," and it's especially not okay for the government to make that determination.
If the US government was ever at risk of saying (publicly) that someone "isn't worth getting out of political prison" they'd lose all credibility in these negotiations for US citizens' lives
