For the first time on television, a weekly series takes an up close and personal look at the controversial business of medicinal cannabis as WEED WARS premieres in a simulcast on Thursday, December 1 at 10PM E/P on Discovery Channel and Discovery Fit & Health .
WEED WARS follows Oakland's Harborside Health Center, the nation's largest medicinal cannabis dispensary serving over 94,000 patients. The man behind Harborside is founder and executive director Steve DeAngelo whose mission is to provide the best possible product to his diverse client base of patients while using his business to educate the rest of the country about the full regulation and taxation of medicinal cannabis.
"WEED WARS fearlessly documents the hot button issue of medicinal cannabis. During filming at Harborside, the series captures the real life drama and high stakes of the business as government scrutiny and audits threaten to shut down operations -- you cannot get anymore 'real' than that," said Nancy Daniels, executive vice president of production and development for Discovery Channel.
At first blush, WEED WARS is a familiar story: a start-up business with demanding clients and the ever-looming possibility that it could all go belly up...But this is not exactly a typical business. When California voters passed the Compassionate Use Act in 1996, medicinal cannabis was legalized within the state igniting a national firestorm and providing an opening to a whole new kind of entrepreneur.
In addition to DeAngelo and his staff, WEED WARS follows the journey of the plant itself from seed germination to harvesting. Meet the growers and "patient farmers" whose job it is to provide the "medicine" -- the buds -- that will be eventually purchased and used by thousands of clients, many of whom feel their lives have been forever changed by the plant.
WEED WARS opens with Harborside facing a steep tax bill from the City of Oakland. Steve's brother Andrew, Harborside's General Manager, is dispatched to meet with the city council. Back at the clinic, Terryn, who works the front counter, must contend with his mother who is less than thrilled by her son's choice of employment. And in a sign of the times, viewers are introduced to mortgage banker turned patient farmer Jon, who left the world of sub primes for the greener pastures of holistic medicine.
