Cannabis

California Takes Steps To Further Legalize Weed

California workers won’t have to worry about being fired, or not hired, for off-the-clock marijuana use.

A new phase of California’s weed legalization begins, as the state prepares to make it illegal for a company to fire, or not hire, someone simply for their off-the-clock marijuana use.

California is the seventh state to do it, but a potentially pivotal one for the national attitude toward weed.

At the very least it’s an emboldening step for the millions of California adults who report using marijuana.

At a cannabis store near San Diego, it could mean a tax boom.

The elimination of job risk helps boost usage numbers.

“There were a lot of myths and stigma associated with cannabis and with having a cannabis store in the community. So it’s nice to see that none of those myths came true and a lot of that stigma is starting to disappear,” said David Dallal, a California cannabis store manager.

Cannabis industry insiders and even some law enforcement hope that destigmatizing weed will push more weed users to shop at legitimate dispensaries.

It could be a potentially life-saving choice as fentanyl-laced drugs flow over the southern border and end up on the black market.

But the stigma around marijuana is still a challenge for people like Dr. David Berger, who’s trying to battle a new restriction in Florida that limits the amount of medical marijuana a person can get in a day.

“Some of my patients for instance, because of their medical needs, they might need to have more milligrams than what the state is allowing for,” said Berger.

Florida is allowing doctors to appeal the limit for those who need it. But that takes time — a potentially-serious wait for users who need the drug.

“If a person is out of their medicine they could be out of their medicine for a good week or almost two and really have no way of accessing it,” said Berger.

It’s a deep contrast to the new reality in California, where lawmakers hope making marijuana irrelevant to employability will set a new standard for the country.

Source: newsy.com

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Mass Grave Site With 440 Bodies Found in Izium, Ukraine Says

Credit…Antranik Tavitian/The Republic/USA Today Network

WASHINGTON — President Biden will meet with the families of Brittney Griner and Paul N. Whelan at the White House on Friday, making good on a longstanding request from the relatives of the two Americans being held prisoner in Russia.

But the president does not have good news to deliver about the prisoner exchange that the administration offered Russia this summer, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said on Thursday.

“While I would love to say that the purpose of this meeting is to inform the families that the Russians have accepted our offer, and we are bringing their loved ones home, that is not what we’re seeing in these negotiations at this time,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said.

“The president wanted to make sure that their families understood that they were front of mind,” she added, “and that his team was working tirelessly every day to get Brittney and Paul home safely.”

Ms. Griner, a W.N.B.A. star and two-time Olympic gold medalist, was detained in Russia in February after the Russian authorities found vape cartridges with 0.7 grams of cannabis oil in her luggage when she arrived in the country to play basketball. She was convicted last month of trying to smuggle narcotics into Russia and sentenced to nine years in a penal colony. Mr. Whelan, a former Marine and corporate security executive, was arrested in 2018 and convicted in 2020 on spying charges and later sentenced to 16 years in prison.

The fates of both Americans have been complicated by the deteriorating diplomatic relationship between the United States and Russia over President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Biden has condemned Mr. Putin’s actions in Ukraine, and the United States has joined with other nations to impose severe sanctions on the country.

Despite that, Mr. Biden’s administration offered this summer to free Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer sentenced to 25 years by a court in New York in 2012, in exchange for the release of Ms. Griner and Mr. Whelan.

Russian officials have confirmed that diplomatic discussions are taking place, but White House officials have been frustrated by the lack of a response to the offer.

“The Russians should accept the offer that’s at the table, and we will encourage them to do that,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said on Thursday.

In the meantime, the families of Ms. Griner and Mr. Whelan have been increasing public pressure on Mr. Biden to ensure that his administration does not let up.

Early in the summer, relatives of both prisoners expressed frustration that they had not heard directly from Mr. Biden. Cherelle Griner, Ms. Griner’s wife, said on CBS in early July that the administration was “not doing anything” and that she wanted to hear from Mr. Biden directly. Two days later, Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Cherelle Griner.

That prompted Elizabeth Whelan, the sister of Mr. Whelan, to publicly question why she had not received a similar call. In a call soon after, Mr. Biden assured Ms. Whelan that the administration was working to free both of the prisoners.

Since then, there has been continued pressure for Mr. Biden to meet with the families face to face. Ms. Jean-Pierre said on Thursday that the meeting was scheduled for Friday because one of the family members was already going to be in the area and that the president wanted to meet with both families on the same day.

It is not clear whether the president will meet with the families together or separately.

The possibility of reaching a prisoner-exchange deal with Russia comes several months after the United States freed a convicted Russian drug smuggler in exchange for Trevor Reed, a former U.S. Marine who had been detained in a Russian prison for three years. White House officials said their Russian counterparts indicated at the time that another trade, for Mr. Bout, could be possible.

Mr. Bout is known as the “Merchant of Death” for his activities as an arms dealer. He is serving a 25-year federal prison sentence for selling arms to undercover U.S. agents, telling them he did not object to the use of the weapons to kill Americans.

— Michael D. Shear

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Cannabis fintech Bespoke to expand BNPL base in cash-starved industry

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An employee puts down an eighth of marijuana after letting a customer smell it outside the Magnolia cannabis lounge in Oakland, California, U.S. April 20, 2018. Friday marked the first ‘4/20’ since the sale of recreational marijuana became legal on January 1. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

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Aug 25 (Reuters) – Fintech firm Bespoke Financial is looking to expand its ‘buy now pay later’ service for cannabis businesses in California and Massachusetts later this year, its Chief Executive George Mancheril said on Thursday.

The push comes after a successful pilot launch in July that allowed cannabis retail outlets to buy products from producers using the service that allows them to pay back after its sale.

The service that uses partner point-of-sales firm Blaze’s software is coming to the weed sector struggling to get funds from banks as it is classified as illegal under federal rules.

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Amid slow banking and legal reforms, the sector is going through a downturn, with marijuana stocks losing nearly 80% of their value from their high in February last year.

“Cannabis has always been its own microcosm, where because of federal illegality we have less access to capital relative to other industries,” Mancheril said in an interview with Reuters.

The plan by Bespoke and Blaze also comes at a stormy time for other BNPL firms as their valuations take a hit from spiraling inflation that has slowed consumer spending.

The two fintech firms believe their service can sidestep such worries as they tap into larger fees from companies, especially the niche cannabis industry, rather than consumers.

“With B2B, there’s a way to actually underwrite risk and to measure risk, in a way that’s much more difficult than on the consumer level,” Mancheril said.

The sector’s financing hurdles is a boon for Bespoke as there is no competition from larger BNPL firms, said Karan Wadhera, managing partner at Casa Verde Capital, a venture capital firm that funds cannabis startups including Bespoke.

“We’re not seeing Affirm or Klarna, and definitely not Apple come into our space anytime soon.”

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Reporting by Ruhi Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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U.S. State Dept. Discourages Dennis Rodman From Traveling To Russia

By Associated Press
August 23, 2022

The former NBA superstar has said he intends to travel to Russia to seek the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner from prison.

State Department Spokesman Ned Price says a visit to Russia from former professional basketball player Dennis Rodman would only “hinder and complicate” the negotiations that are currently happening to free Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.

Griner, an eight-time all-star center with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and two-time Olympic gold medalist, was convicted Aug. 4 after police said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.

Reflecting the growing pressure on the Biden administration to do more to bring Griner home, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the unusual step of revealing publicly in July that Washington had made a “substantial proposal” to get Griner home, along with Paul Whelan, an American serving a 16-year sentence in Russia for espionage.

Blinken didn’t elaborate, but The Associated Press and other news organizations have reported that Washington has offered to free Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who is serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. and once earned the nickname the “Merchant of Death.”

Price also spoke about the government’s response to negotiate a return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

A resolution may be tantalizingly close.

But as the U.S. and Europe weigh Iran’s latest response to an EU proposal described as the West’s final offer, the administration faces new and potentially insurmountable domestic political hurdles to forging a lasting agreement.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

Source: newsy.com

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Lawyers Appeal Brittney Griner’s Russian Prison Sentence

By Associated Press
August 15, 2022

The WNBA star’s attorneys say the nine-year prison sentence is excessive.

Lawyers for American basketball star Brittney Griner on Monday filed an appeal against her nine-year Russian prison sentence for drug possession, Russian news agencies reported Monday.

Griner, a center for the Phoenix Mercury and a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was convicted on Aug. 4. She was arrested in February at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport after vape canisters containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage.

Griner played for a women’s basketball team in Yekaterinburg during the WNBA offseason.

Lawyer Maria Blagovolina was quoted by Russian news agencies on Monday as saying the appeal was filed, but the grounds of the appeal weren’t immediately clear.

Blagovolina and co-counsel Alexander Boykov said after the conviction that the sentence was excessive and that in similar cases defendants have received an average sentence of about five years, with about a third of them granted parole.

Griner admitted that she had the canisters in her luggage, but said she had inadvertently packed them in haste and that she had no criminal intent. Her defense team presented written statements that she had been prescribed cannabis to treat pain.

Before her conviction, the U.S. State Department declared Griner to be “wrongfully detained.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the unusual step of revealing publicly in July that the U.S. had made a “substantial proposal” to get Griner home, along with Paul Whelan, an American serving a 16-year sentence in Russia for espionage.

On Sunday, a senior Russian diplomat said exchange talks have been conducted.

“This quite sensitive issue of the swap of convicted Russian and U.S. citizens is being discussed through the channels defined by our presidents,” Alexander Darchiev, head of the Foreign Ministry’s North America department, told state news agency Tass. “These individuals are, indeed, being discussed. The Russian side has long been seeking the release of Viktor Bout. The details should be left to professionals, proceeding from the ‘do not harm’ principle.'”

Additional reporting by the Associated Press.

Source: newsy.com

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Live Updates: U.S. Seeks African Support in Ukraine War

Credit…Pool photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko

WASHINGTON — Immediately after a Moscow judge handed down Brittney Griner’s nine-year prison sentence on Thursday, calls grew louder for President Biden to find a way to bring her home, even as critics fumed that offering to swap prisoners with Moscow rewarded Russian hostage-taking.

The result is a painful quandary for the Biden administration as it tries to maintain a hard line against President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia over the war in Ukraine.

“There’s nothing good here,” said Andrea Schneider, an expert on international conflict resolution at Cardozo School of Law. “No matter what Biden does, he’s going to be criticized — either that we’re giving too much or we’re not working hard enough.”

Kremlin officials had said talks on an exchange could not proceed before her trial was complete, but even with an official verdict and sentence, a deal may not happen anytime soon.

“I think the fact that Putin has not said yes right away means that he’s looked at the U.S. offer and said, ‘Well, that’s their first offer. I can get more than that,’” said Jared Genser, a human rights lawyer who represents Americans held by foreign governments.

The Biden administration proposed to trade Ms. Griner and Paul N. Whelan, a former Marine convicted in Moscow of espionage in 2020, for the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is midway through a 25-year federal prison sentence for offering to sell arms to a Colombian rebel group that the United States then considered a terrorist organization.

Mr. Biden finds himself squeezed from two sides.

On one side are Ms. Griner’s supporters. Her wife, Cherelle Griner, has made public pleas for Mr. Biden to cut a deal with Mr. Putin as soon as possible. Those pleas have been echoed by the Rev. Al Sharpton, Democratic activist groups, television pundits, pro athletes and celebrities on social media.

But there has also been criticism from Mr. Biden’s other flank — and charges that Mr. Biden has been bending to extortion by Mr. Putin, a man he has called a war criminal.

“This is why dictatorships — like Venezuela, Iran, China, Russia — take Americans hostage, because they know they’ll get something for it,” Rep. Mike Waltz, Republican of Florida, told Newsmax last week. “They know eventually some administration will pay. And this just puts a target on the back of every American out there.”

Mike Pompeo, the former secretary of state, echoed the criticism in a Fox News interview last week, saying that to free Mr. Bout would “likely lead to more” Americans being arrested abroad.

And former President Donald J. Trump, who is likely to run again in 2024, slammed the proposed deal in crude terms. He said Mr. Bout was “absolutely one of the worst in the world, and he’s going to be given his freedom because a potentially spoiled person goes into Russia loaded up with drugs.” (Russian officials who detained Ms. Griner at a Moscow-area airport in mid-February found less than one gram of cannabis vape oil in her bags.)

— Michael Crowley

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Kremlin Says Griner Swap Must Be Discussed Without Publicity

By Associated Press

and Stuart Smith
August 5, 2022

“The U.S. already has made mistakes, trying to solve such problems via ‘microphone diplomacy.’ They are not solved that way,” Kremlin spokesman said.

The Kremlin said Friday that it’s open to talking about a possible prisoner exchange involving American basketball star Brittney Griner but strongly warned Washington against publicizing the issue.

Griner, a two-time U.S. Olympic champion and an eight-time all-star with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, has been detained in Russia since Feb. 17 after police at Moscow’s airport said they found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage.

A judge convicted the 31-year-old athlete Thursday of drug possession and smuggling, and sentenced her to nine years in prison. The politically charged case comes amid high tensions between Moscow and Washington over Russia’s military action in Ukraine.

In an extraordinary move, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke last week to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, urging him to accept a deal under which Griner and Paul Whelan, an American jailed in Russia on espionage charges, would go free.

Lavrov and Blinken were both in Cambodia on Friday for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Blinken did not even glance at his Russian counterpart as they took their seats at an East Asia Summit.

Lavrov told reporters that Blinken didn’t try to contact him while they were attending the ASEAN meeting.

“We were separated by just one person at the discussion table, but I didn’t feel his desire to catch me. My buttons are all in place,” he said when asked about Washington’s statement that Blinken would try to buttonhole Lavrov for a quick interaction in Phnom Penh.

Lavrov said Moscow was “ready to discuss” a prisoner swap but that the topic should only be discussed via a dedicated Russia-U.S. channel that U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to establish when they met in Geneva in June 2021.

“If the Americans again try to engage in public diplomacy and make loud statements about their intention to take certain steps, it’s their business, I would even say their problem,” Lavrov said. “The Americans often have trouble observing agreements on calm and professional work.”

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the same point more harshly, saying “the U.S. already has made mistakes, trying to solve such problems via ‘microphone diplomacy.’ They are not solved that way.”

He, too, emphasized that any discussions on a possible trade should be held via the previously established confidential channels that Putin and President Biden agree to during last year’s summit.

“Such mechanisms exist, but they will be thrown into doubt if the discussion continues in the public domain,” Peskov said. He said: “If we discuss any nuances related to the issue of exchange via media, no exchange will ever take place.”

People familiar with the U.S. proposal have said it envisions trading Griner and Whelan for a notorious Russian arms trader, Viktor Bout. He is serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. after being convicted of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens and providing aid to a terrorist organization.

The call between Blinken and Lavrov marked the highest-level known contact between Washington and Moscow since Russia sent troops into Ukraine more than five months ago, underlining the public pressure that the White House has faced to get Griner released.

Griner was arrested as she was returning to play for a team in Russia, where she has competed since 2014. Blinken said Friday that her conviction and sentence “compounds the injustice that has been done to her.”

“It puts a spotlight on our very significant concern with Russia’s legal system and the Russian government’s use of wrongful detentions to advance its own agenda using individuals as political pawns,” he said.

On Thursday, President Biden denounced the Russian judge’s verdict and sentence as “unacceptable” and said he would continue working to bring Griner and Whelan home.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

Source: newsy.com

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Russian Judge Sentences Griner To 9 Years In Prison On Drug Charges

WNBA star Brittney Griner was arrested nearly six months ago at a Moscow airport over cannabis vape cartridges found in her luggage.

Update: This article has been updated since its original publication to highlight Brittney Griner’s sentence.

U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner was convicted Thursday in Russia of drug possession and sentenced to nine years in prison following a politically charged trial that came amid soaring tensions between Moscow and Washington over Ukraine and could lead to a high-stakes prisoner exchange between the two world powers.

The 31-year-old Griner, a two-time U.S. Olympic champion and eight-time all-star with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, listened with a blank expression as an interpreter translated the verdict by Judge Anna Sotnikova. The judge also fined Griner 1 million rubles (about $16,700).

U.S. President Joe Biden denounced the verdict and sentence as “unacceptable.”

“I call on Russia to release her immediately so she can be with her wife, loved ones, friends, and teammates,” President Biden said, adding that he would continue to work to bring home Griner and Paul Whelan, an American imprisoned in Russia on an espionage conviction.

Earlier in the session, with a conviction all but certain, an emotional Griner made a final appeal to the court for leniency. She said she had no intention to break the law by bringing vape cartridges with cannabis oil when she flew to Moscow in February to play basketball in the city of Yekaterinburg.

“I want to apologize to my teammates, my club, my fans and the city of (Yekaterinburg) for my mistake that I made and the embarrassment that I brought on them,” Griner said, her voice cracking. “I want to also apologize to my parents, my siblings, the Phoenix Mercury organization back at home, the amazing women of the WNBA, and my amazing spouse back at home.”

Griner said she made “an honest mistake” in bringing the vape cartridges into Russia, adding: “I hope in your ruling it does not end my life.”

Griner said Yekaterinburg, a city east of the Ural Mountains, had become her “second home.”

“I had no idea that the team, the cities, the fans, my teammates would make such a great impression on me over the 6 1/2 years that I spent here,” she said. “I remember vividly coming out of the gym and all the little girls that were in the stands there waiting on me, and that’s what kept making me come back here.”

Prosecutor Nikolai Vlasenko insisted that Griner packed the cannabis oil deliberately.

Lawyers for the Phoenix Mercury center and two-time Olympic gold medalist have sought to bolster Griner’s contention that she had no criminal intent and that the canisters ended up in her luggage by mistake. They presented character witnesses from the Yekaterinburg team that she plays for in the WNBA offseason and written testimony from a doctor who said he prescribed her cannabis for pain treatment from injuries sustained in her basketball career.

Her lawyer, Maria Blagovolina, argued that Griner used the cannabis only in Arizona, where medical marijuana is legal.

She emphasized that Griner was packing in haste after a grueling flight and suffering from the consequences of COVID-19. Blagovolina also pointed out that the analysis of cannabis found in Griner’s possession was flawed and violated legal procedures.

Blagovolina asked the court to acquit Griner, noting that she had no past criminal record and hailing her role in “the development of Russian basketball.”

Another defense attorney, Alexander Boykov, emphasized Griner’s role in taking her Yekaterinburg team to win multiple championships, noting that she was loved and admired by her teammates. He told the judge that a conviction would undermine Russia’s efforts to develop national sports and make Moscow’s call to depoliticize sports sound shallow.

Boykov added that even after her arrest, Griner won the sympathy of both her guards and prison inmates, who supported her by shouting, “Brittney, everything will be OK!” when she went on walks at the jail.

Before her trial began in July, the State Department designated her as “wrongfully detained,” moving her case under the supervision of its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, effectively the government’s chief hostage negotiator.

Then last week, in an extraordinary move, Blinken spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, urging him to accept a deal under which Griner and Paul Whelan, an American imprisoned in Russia on an espionage conviction, would go free.

The Lavrov-Blinken call marked the highest-level known contact between Washington and Moscow since Russia sent troops into Ukraine more than five months ago. The direct outreach over Griner is at odds with U.S. efforts to isolate the Kremlin.

People familiar with the proposal say it envisions trading Griner and Whelan for the notorious arms trader Viktor Bout, who is serving a prison sentence in the United States. It underlines the public pressure that the White House has faced to get Griner released.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that Russia has made a “bad faith” response to the U.S. government’s offer, a counteroffer that American officials don’t regard as serious. She declined to elaborate.

Russian officials have scoffed at U.S. statements about the case, saying they show a disrespect for Russian law. They remained poker-faced, urging Washington to discuss the issue through “quiet diplomacy without releases of speculative information.”

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

Source: newsy.com

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WNBA Star Brittney Griner Back In Russian Court On Cannabis Charge

By Associated Press

and Newsy Staff
August 2, 2022

The WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist could face up to 10 years in Russian prison.

American basketball star Brittney Griner was back in court on Tuesday for her trial for cannabis possession amid U.S. diplomatic efforts to secure her release.

During the hearing, prosecutors called a state narcotics expert who analyzed cannabis found in Griner’s luggage. Her defense fielded a specialist who challenged the analysis, charging that it was flawed and didn’t conform to official rules.

Griner was escorted into court in handcuffs and placed inside a cage in the trial in Khimki, a town on the northern edge of Moscow. While in the cage she held up personal photos.

The trial adjourned until Thursday, when closing statements are scheduled.

If convicted, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) star and two-time Olympic gold medalist could face 10 years in prison. As her trial has progressed, the Biden administration has faced growing public pressure to get her released.

In an extraordinary move, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week spoke to his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, urging him to accept a deal under which Griner and Paul Whelan, an American imprisoned in Russia on an espionage conviction, would go free.

The Lavrov-Blinken call marked the highest-level known contact between Washington and Moscow since Russia sent troops into Ukraine more than five months ago, the direct outreach at odds with U.S. efforts to isolate the Kremlin.

People familiar with the proposal say it envisions trading Griner and Whelan for the notorious arms trader Viktor Bout. It underlines the public pressure that the White House has faced to get Griner released.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday that Russia has made a “bad faith” response to the U.S. government’s offer, a counteroffer that American officials don’t regard as serious. She declined to elaborate.

Griner has acknowledged there were vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage when she was arrested at a Moscow airport in February. But she insisted that she had no criminal intent and that the canisters ended up in her luggage because she was packing hastily. Griner played for a Russian women’s basketball team in the WNBA off-season.

To bolster her case, her defense lawyers have presented testimony from doctors that she was prescribed cannabis as a treatment for pain. Medical marijuana treatment is not legal in Russia.

“There are a lot of factors that will taken by the court into account,” Griner’s attorney Maria Blagovolina told reporters after Tuesday’s hearing, adding that Griner “admitted that she did bring something, but we need to know what she did bring.”

While judges have leeway to consider mitigating factors under Russian law, acquittals are rare and account for less than 1% of cases in Russian criminal prosecutions.

A conviction, however, could potentially pave the way for Griner’s exchange as Russian officials said it could only happen after the judicial process is completed.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

Source: newsy.com

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Brittney Griner’s Friend D’Andra Moss Talks About Prisoner Swap

D’Andra Moss tells Newsy while Griner is resilient, her loved ones are still worried about her being detained in Russia.

A few weeks ago, the U.S. offered a deal with Russia to bring WNBA star Brittney Griner back home. It’s now been five months since she was detained in Russia on drug charges. She pleaded guilty three weeks ago, but now she faces a possible 10 years behind bars. Wednesday, the U.S. proposed a prisoner swap involving Griner and fellow prisoner Paul Whelan, a Marine, in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, the so-called “merchant of death.”

D’Andra Moss is a friend of Brittney Griner’s who spoke with “Newsy Reports” host Del Walters about the possibility of the prisoner swap.

NEWSY’S DEL WALTERS: D’Andra, thanks for being here with us here. Have you been in touch with Griner or anybody in the family? And if so, how are they doing?

D’ANDRA MOSS: I haven’t recently. I imagine this time is very anxious. At least there has been some traction, there’s been some headway, potential that she could be coming home. I think everyone is excited and optimistic, but still very much on pins and needles about the whole situation, understandably so.

WALTERS: What’s it like for all of you guys who have played overseas, in the WNBA, in the different leagues, to be on pins and needles right now waiting to hear from Russia? Because the U. S. announced that they were trying to get this prisoner swap yesterday. They say they haven’t heard from Moscow yet.

MOSS: It’s like your heart is in your stomach, you know, because you’re hopeful but you’re scared. The thing is, you don’t want this to go silent. You don’t want to go into a situation where you’re not hearing anything, so you’re just really conflicted. That’s the best word to explain it. You’re conflicted because you wan them to come home, you want Brittney to come home, Paul wants to come home, his family wants him to come home. But at the same time, you know this is Russia. They could just go silent. You’re dealing with Russia and the regime of Putin. Honestly, anything can happen so it’s just such a tense moment. You can’t really think about anything else. It’s hard to really focus on anything else whatsoever. It’s impossible. So I know that the family is just — that’s exactly how they’re feeling. They want this to just cross over to the next path and just waiting for that call that she’s on the flight home. That’s what they want so badly and that’s the only thing that’s taking up their head space at the moment.

WALTERS: You know, when we watched your counterparts in the soccer league take to the field and the different pressures that they were under, even though they made a lot less money than their male counterparts, we found out exactly how tough they were. How tough are the women of the WNBA, your fellow players?

MOSS: Incredibly tough. The things that women athletes have to go through in a man’s world, in terms of sports: salary, just equity. These are incredibly resilient women. If you think about it, the WNBA and its players have been leading the way in every social cause there is. They are leaders at the forefront. They don’t wait to see how the NBA will react or how MLB will react or NFL. They are leaders. So when I say, these are a group of resilient women because we’ve had to be all of our lives — because this is the only way that we’ll have a place in this world and to get our respect, right? So you’re dealing with a group of very resilient women, but we are still human, you know? And you don’t want to just rest on that — that we’ll just get through it and we’re very resilient and we’ll be fine. No. Take care of us and help Brittney to get home and take care of these women and give us the equity we deserve, and the respect. That’s all we want. But a very tough group of women in the WNBA, period.

WALTERS: We now know that she was using cannabis for medicinal purposes because of pain. What type of pain — oh, I see you nodding your head. Tell me about it.

MOSS: Del, let me tell you something. When you play, year-round, a very demanding sport, including the travel — it’s not like you’re traveling regionally, you’re traveling globally across Europe — and first of all, we’re running every day, your joints hurt, it just hurts. Sometimes, you can’t even sleep. You’re so tired, you can’t sleep. Between the traveling, you’re practicing because you have to stay sharp on your craft. And then, when Brittney gets home in the summertime, she’s in the WNBA. And then when that’s finished, she has a couple of weeks and then she’s back over in Russia. You never really have the opportunity to let your body calm down, right? So this is what happens as women players with a year-round thing. So pain, chronic pain is something that I can assure you most or all of us have dealt with. I’ve dealt with it. I’ve had seven knee surgeries — two ACL reconstructions and five in between. I’ve dealt with pain my entire career. So, it’s something that you just start to live with, but you have to manage it because when it gets out of control, you can’t really perform. You’re trying to fight through pain. That means I’m not focusing on my task at hand as a player, which is playing defense, scoring etc., what my team needs of me. So, that is something that, especially someone of Brittney’s caliber and her schedule, she has to be in chronic pain just because of her schedule. She’s been playing this way since college. Think about her career at Baylor. She hasn’t had a rest. I doubt she’s had a rest for more than two weeks in the last 10 or 12 years of her life. Think about that. That’s incredible.

WALTERS: She’s 6’9″ and when they take her back and forth to that Russian trial, she is in a cage and she is literally bent over. As you see the images of her going back and forth and inside the courtroom, is there something that you’re seeing that we’re not seeing that may give us a clue as to how she’s doing physically?

MOSS: I think she’s just trying to get by. I know that she’s not comfortable, but I remember we talked about this the last time. She’s trying to stay strong for her family because they’re already worried. We’re already worried. And she doesn’t want people to worry more than what they already are. That’s what Brittney’s trying to do and I can see that through her face. This is not enjoyable for her. This is not enjoyable. This is not a vacation. And this is not something anyone should ever have to experience. So that’s what I see when I see these images. She’s trying to remain strong, especially when she’s in court and the cameras are out because she doesn’t want her family to worry.

WALTERS: Final question before I let you go. We always assume because we’re in the States: Being gay is OK. It’s not in Russia. Did you ever worry overseas about how these different countries would react to you differently than the way they react to people here in the States?

MOSS: Oh absolutely. Some countries more than others. But definitely when, for example, I spent many times in Ukraine, a lot of times in Turkey, to where you have to just be careful. You know, it’s not OK. You have to just be wary about your surroundings and the people you choose to have in your circle, because sometimes things like that — being gay — it impacts your livelihood. It impacts your work. Your team presidents and members get involved in your personal life and now your livelihood is in danger in terms of how you make money and your contract situation. So, you have to be very careful about that stuff and in Russia, especially. So it’s just, it’s a lot. Again, a lot of the things that we have dealt with, that we put up with in a way because we enjoy the game and the other side of it and the great things that basketball brings us — but that those are one of the things, in terms of being gay and not really being able to be free — that’s something we could definitely live without. And you have to really be careful. And there were a couple of times I really was mindful about all of those things in my circle when it came to certain places that I played, especially in Turkey, primarily.

WALTERS: Well, thanks for speaking out because we are now all watching and waiting. And I know it’s even worse for you. D’Andra Moss, joining us now from the West Coast. Thanks for being with us.

MOSS: Thank you, Del.

Source: newsy.com

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