For those who travel with prescription medication, often burdened by the anxiety of whether they’ll make it home safely without trouble, Brittney Griner is doing what she can to ease that weight.
Toward the end of 2025, the 35-year-old professional basketball player co-founded Zennjet, a travel membership company offering travel insurance and legal assistance for travelers carrying prescription drugs, particularly cannabis prescribed by a licensed physician.
“I never want anybody to go through what I went through. I’m aware that I’m very blessed and very lucky to have an agency team, my wife and everybody behind me,” she told USA Today.
In 2022, the WNBA star was famously detained in Russia for drug possession after border agents found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage. She was sentenced to prison and served 10 months before being released as part of a prisoner exchange.
Griner had been prescribed medical cannabis for off-season pain management, but she has said it was never her intention to bring a banned substance into Russia.
Describing her ordeal more in depth, she told the outlet that at the time of her arrest, she was being spoken to in Russian and asked to sign documents in Russian, all before she had the chance to contact her agent or her wife.
The Atlanta Dream center hopes others can avoid the same ordeal through Zennjet, which allows users to register upcoming trips and receive live updates on destination-specific rules and regulations, translation assistance, legal guidance, and—most importantly—repatriation services if detained or refused entry.
“I want people to be able to be aware, informed, and to know where they’re going, where they’re traveling,” she said.
Medications listed as covered by the company include benzodiazepines, opioids, and medical cannabis prescribed by a licensed medical professional.
Since her own experience, Griner has adjusted how she travels and urges others to do their research, no matter how familiar a destination may seem.
“Education is key,” she said. “Taking that bit of time can save you a lot of heartache, a lot of money, a lot of time.”
