American basketball player jailed 26 months in Indonesia over cannabis gummies
An Indonesian court in Tangerang sentenced American basketball player Jarred Shaw to 26 months in prison for possessing 132 cannabis gummies imported from Thailand. The trafficking charge, which can carry the death penalty in Indonesia, was dropped in favour of the lesser possession charge.
An Indonesian court in Tangerang sentenced American basketball player Jarred Shaw, 35, to 26 months in prison after finding him guilty of drug possession.[1][2]
Shaw, a Texan who most recently played for the Tangerang Hawks in the Indonesian Basketball League, had faced the possibility of the death penalty under the country’s strict drug laws.[1][2]He admitted importing 132 cannabis gummies, saying they were to relieve the symptoms of Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammation of the digestive tract.[1]
Shaw was arrested in May 2025 in the lobby of his Tangerang apartment complex when he went to retrieve a package shipped from Thailand containing THC-infused gummies.[1][2]The court convicted him of the lesser possession charge rather than trafficking, sparing him a far heavier penalty.[1][2]He also received a lifetime ban from the Indonesian league.[2]
Speaking from a prison cell he shares with seven other people in April 2026, Shaw said incarceration had been disastrous for his health and pleaded for international pressure for an early release before he suffers permanent damage.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Prison
26 months
Agency type
Court
Cannabis
Herbal cannabis
Activity
Possession
Setting
Home, Prison
Case stage
Sentenced
Sentence
Prison
Route
Thailand → Indonesia
Sources
SRN Newssrnnews.comSick American basketball player jailed in Indonesia over cannabis gummies pleads for early release
The Arga Makmur District Court in Bengkulu sentenced M. Santri and Kiki Juliansyah to 10 months each on 29 October 2026 for using cannabis, with three months of rehabilitation. The court used a restorative-justice procedure under Indonesia's 2025 criminal procedure code, with the narcotics agency as the victim party; Kiki was arrested with 2.37 grams of cannabis.
The Sanggau district court sentenced civil servant Fidelis Arie Sudewarto to eight months in prison for growing marijuana to treat his wife Yeni Riawati's syringomyelia. The judges accepted he was neither dealer nor user, but ruled he had no permit; his wife died a month after his arrest.
Denpasar District Court sentenced British national Paul Beales to four years in prison for possessing hashish, clearing him of drug trafficking. The sentence, reported on 20 December 2012, followed his arrest in a May 2012 sting linked to a cocaine smuggling case.
Between 2009 and 2012, 37,923 people were imprisoned for using cannabis, according to figures cited by the Transnational Institute, even though the 2009 narcotics law and a Supreme Court circular were meant to send users to rehabilitation.