Maine Voice: Griner’s experience reminds us of the pitfalls of world travel.

Britney Greener’s odyssey should be a wake-up call to any American traveler to another country, especially teenagers struggling to find their maturity and independence away from parents and country. The WNBA star was sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony last week after transporting vape cartridges containing less than 1 gram of hashish oil to Moscow.

To begin with, it is important to know the local laws of the place you are visiting. Be ready to obey them – as foolish as one might think that it is related to your own comfort zone in America.

I speak from experience as a youth travel leader. More than once, I’ve had to deal with some hairy situations involving culture clash and the tendency of teenagers to bend the rules. A retired New England boarding school teacher and coach now living in Topsham, I’ve led student archeology trips to Central and South America over spring break, and traveled with soccer teams to Eastern Europe, Finland, and the former USSR in the summer. I speak from my experiences, if my charges were foolish enough to attempt some international standards, they would have been associated with international events.

United States Women’s National Basketball Association basketball player Brittany Griner is arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport and charged with possession of illegal cannabis, Thursday, August 4, 2022. (Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool/AFP/Getty Images/TNS) Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool/AFP/Getty Images/TNS

Once, in Mexico, a van carrying eight students was stopped in the mountains near Tuxtla by men in “military” uniforms and weapons. We were ordered to unload our belongings, empty our trunks, and spread everything on the side of the road. Was he carefully searched for anything – drugs, alcohol? Finding nothing, they left us to pack our luggage back and be on our way. Who knows what the outcome might be if something off the beaten path, something out of the ordinary is discovered.

On a separate trip, another favorite trick of the locals came up when we hit the beaches 60 miles south of Cancun. One of our children was enjoying the beach when a local teenager approached and offered something, possibly marijuana, for a small price. The game, if there is a transaction, the local person will go to a “constable” and tell him about the deal. The buyer is then contacted by an entity called an “authority”, a purchase is established and the buyer is “caught”. Now, the parent or guardian of a naïve American teenager is given the opportunity to escape “accusation” or shame. Money should change hands quietly.

On the Russian football trip, I myself participated in a situation. I was asked to check into the hotel where our team was staying, and I was asked to meet a local street vendor to exchange a jersey from my school’s Moscow professional team – a common enough thing between teams and coaches on an international sports trip. But this was Russia, and the question is whether the seller accepted US dollars, which was against Russian law at the time. It eventually turned out that I didn’t actually get the jersey in question, although I might have had it in another country under different circumstances. In the end I was denied the shirt and mine was returned. I was eventually forgiven and had no idea what had happened to the other individual.

The traveler should always remember that we are guests in a foreign country, and to make the trip more enjoyable for both parties, we should have some knowledge and appreciation of their laws, customs and practices. Young Americans are sometimes seen as mischievous and foolish and can become targets of many countries’ street economies.

So this year, it’s a “Bon trip” when traveling around the world. Enjoy the food, culture and spirit of the host country. and understanding and respect for differences and expectations.

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