US born basketball player Jarred Shaw, a standout in Indonesia’s professional league, was arrested in May for importing 132 THC-infused gummies to treat his Crohn’s disease. In a country known for some of the world’s harshest drug laws, his case sparks an uncomfortable debate: medicine for some, a crime for others.
The 35-year-old athlete —a former IBL champion with Prawira Bandung who also played in Argentina, Japan, Turkey, Thailand, and Tunisia— is currently being held in pretrial custody in Jakarta after collecting a $400 pack of THC gummies. Police claim it contained nearly 869 grams of “cannabis” and have not ruled out charges carrying a potential life sentence… or even the death penalty. Shaw maintains his innocence: “I use cannabis as medicine,” he stated, according to The Guardian.
The case, in context
On May 7, 2025, Jarred Shaw was arrested in the lobby of his apartment building in Indonesia when he went to pick up a package that, according to him, contained THC-infused gummies for medical use. What he expected to be relief for his chronic pain turned into an ambush. Ten undercover officers arrested him on the spot. Hours later, he was paraded before the media in handcuffs and an orange prison shirt at a police press conference, standing beside a table displaying 132 gummies that Indonesian authorities valued at $400 and said weighed a total of 869 grams.
Police claim that the package’s gross weight constitutes a significant amount of drugs, and allege that Shaw had messaged teammates saying he planned to share some of the gummies. Shaw denies this, insisting they were strictly for personal use. Even if he made a mistake, he says, his mishap should not warrant the death penalty or a long sentence.
Shaw was diagnosed years ago with Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel condition that …
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Author: Camila Berriex / High Times
