South Africans take it for granted one can pop down to the street corner and buy cannabis edibles without a care in the world. In other countries where cannabis is still seen as a dangerous drug, the story is very different. A slight infraction can see you banged up for years if you’re lucky. In some countries, possession of a very small amount of cannabis is a hanging crime!
A South African man has found out the hard way in Zambia. Colete Emil, aged 39, was arrested in connection with the offence of Unlawful Possession of six (6) sachets of Candy Gummies weighing 20 grams and containing 1.6 % of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC); which is above the legal threshold of 0.3%.
Emil was one of two foreign suspects that Zambia’s Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) announced had been apprehended for cannabis-related offences on 5 October 2025. Zambia forbids recreational use of cannabis and designates its military as the sole entity entrusted with the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
Emil’s case however pales in comparison to an American basketball player’s cannabis woes in Indonesia. Jarred Shaw (35) (pictured above) is potentially facing the death penalty or a lengthy prison sentence after being arrested in the Asian country for possession of cannabis gummies he says he uses for medical purposes to treat Crohn’s disease.
The Texan played internationally for Prawira Bandung and helped secure a victory in the 2023 Indonesian Basketball League (IBL). He was arrested in May after receiving a package of over 100 cannabis gummies.
Indonesia has extremely punitive drug laws, including for cannabis, and the crime carries the possibility of capital punishment. Shaw conceded in a recent interview with The Guardian that he made a “stupid mistake,” but explained he uses cannabis to treat gastrointestinal symptoms. “There’s no medicine apart from cannabis that stops my stomach from aching,” he said, adding. “There’s people telling me I’m about to spend the rest of my life in prison over some edibles.”
Shaw was arrested in dramatic fashion while collecting a delivery of cannabis gummies weighing 869 grams. He is charged for possessing essentially a kilo of cannabis even though most of the weight was from the non-cannabis components of the edible.
“They’re making it seem like I’m this big drug dealer,” Shaw said. “Why would I bring the candy here to sell? It was for personal use.”
Shaw’s hopes now lie with the Trump administration and whether it will designate him a wrongfullydetained individual by a foreign government, and call for his release as has been the case in past cannabis-related international cases.
For example, Pennsylvania teacher Marc Fogel was declared a wrongfully detained individual after being sentenced to 14 years in Russia for “drug smuggling” over possession of 17 grams of cannabis. He was released earlier this year after the Trump administration intervened. But by that time, he had been in prison for over four years.
Another American professional basketball player, Brittney Griner was also designated wrongfully detained and subsequently released in a prisoner exchange deal the Biden administration struck with Russia last year. She had spent almost a year in Russian custody after being bust for possessing less than a gram of hash oil while entering the country.
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