The Texan made the mistake of his life when he ordered gummies to soothe symptoms of Crohn’s disease. Now his health is suffering in a foreign jail
Jarred Shaw is locked up in an Indonesian prison – but at least he isn’t facing execution, something that appeared a possibility less than a year ago.
The 35-year-old American was a key member of the Prawira Bandung team who won the Indonesian Basketball League (IBL) in 2023, the latest highlight in a fascinating professional career that had taken him to countries as varied as Tunisia, Lebanon, Uruguay, Saudi Arabia and Japan.
Shaw did so despite suffering from Crohn’s, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease which affects the digestive tract. Like many who live with the condition, he found cannabis helped alleviate his often excruciating symptoms and would use the substance legally for medical purposes in Thailand, where he lived during the IBL’s off-season.
That was until he made what he calls a “stupid mistake” and ordered a package of 132 cannabis gummies to be delivered to his apartment complex in Indonesia – leading to his dramatic arrest in May 2025. He went from a basketball star who had scored 1,000 points over three seasons in the country to being paraded handcuffed wearing an orange prison shirt in front of Indonesian media.
