Marc Fogel, now in his 60s, was sentenced by a Russian court to 14 years in prison in June 2022 for allegedly “large-scale” cannabis smuggling.   

Fogel was, in fact, a legal medical marijuana patient in Pennsylvania where he used cannabis as an alternative to opioids for chronic pain following spinal surgery.

Fogel, who previously worked at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, was employed as an English teacher at the Anglo-American School in Moscow at the time of his arrest in August 2021 when he entered Russia with about a half-ounce of medical marijuana prescribed by his Pennsylvania doctor.

This week the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations voted in favor of Sen. Bob Casey's (D-Penn.) bipartisan concurrent resolution calling for Fogel's immediate release from Russian detention.

"This resolution sends a clear, bipartisan message to Vladimir Putin and dictators like him that the United States won't stand for the imprisonment of Americans like Marc Fogel," said Sen. Casey in a press statement on Thursday.

"Marc is a loving father and schoolteacher who's devoted his life to educating students around the world. The United States must do everything possible to bring Marc home and show our enemies that Americans aren't to be used in their political games."

Photo: Marc Fogel from YouTube