Tell me that’s not the sentence of a political prisoner.

The woman basketball player who was busted traveling with cannabis oil back in February, literally the dregs of a vape cartridge that was fully recommended by her Arizona (a legalized state) doctor — she won’t see her freedom until sometime around 2030, the year I hope to be fully retired, collecting social security. She’ll be about 40, the best years of her athletic life spent behind bars.

Certainly, living to tell the story will be a feat. I’ve read that she is keeping her sense of humor in her correspondence.

Suffering this punishment as a statement to the world, and being used in negotiations for exchange of other prisoners is what is happening, and I wonder how she is feeling about it, aside from the jokes.

Perhaps because she is a two time Olympic gold medalist, she is connected enough to command the attention of the world’s diplomats, the state department, the private sector. Her wife has been on Good Morning America, making a public plea to our own politicians to keep rallying for her release.

When I think about the number of times I’ve carried weed, for my own personal usage, to places where it is forbidden by law – and I have to thank the heavens, count my blessings again. No, I haven’t been to Russia, but I have been places that didn’t allow it, and I flagrantly ignored the laws. Of course I wouldn’t command the international attention that she does, but still.

There, by the grace of God, go I.