Brittney Griner's Defense Hopes for 'Lenient' Sentence in Drug Trial
Brittney Griner continued in Moscow on Tuesday, with her defense team presenting additional evidence to support their position that the basketball player brought cannabis-infused oil cartridges to Russia by accident.Griner's lawyers presented negative drug tests, and a drug expert testified that frequent marijuana users would continue testing positive long after the last use.The expert, Mikhail Tetyushkin, said that medical marijuana is increasingly common in countries around the world, including the United States. He said it is often used by athletes to alleviate pain after sustaining physical trauma, supporting the defense's argument that Griner only used cannabis for medical purposes under doctor's supervision.«It is clear that if the use is constant, it affects the nervous system, decreases the speed of reaction and thinking, decreases physical activity and the ability to perform highly coordinated movements, so professional athletes cannot use them all the time,» Tetyushkin told journalists after the hearing.«The position of the defense is not that Brittany was allowed to bring banned substances into Russia.