Heart of Dankness: Underground Botanists, Outlaw Farmers, and the Race for the Cannabis Cup

229 Pages·2012·1.17 MB·English

by  Mark Haskell Smith

Also by
Mark Haskell Smith
Moist
Delicious
Salty
Baked

Copyright © 2012 by Mark Haskell Smith
Signal is an imprint of McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
Published simultaneously in the United States of American by Broadway Paperbacks, an imprint
of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Cultivating and consuming marijuana for medical use is legal in the state of California and, at the
same time, illegal in the United States under federal law. Because of this, the author has changed
names and identifying details to protect the privacy of some of the individuals in this book.
All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a
retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher – or, in case of photocopying
or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency – is an
infringement of the copyright law.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Smith, Mark Haskell.
Heart of dankness : underground botanists, outlaw farmers, and the race for the Cannabis Cup /
Mark Haskell Smith.
eISBN: 978-0-77103971-3
1. Marijuana industry. 2. Cannabis – Judging – Netherlands – Amsterdam. 3. Cannabis –
Varieties. 4. Marijuana – Varieties. 5. Marijuana – Law and legislation – California. I. Title.
HD9019.M38S65 2012 338.1’7379 C2011-904428-5
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book
Fund and that of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development
Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative. We further acknowledge the support of the Canada Council
for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program.
McClelland & Stewart,
a division of Random House of Canada Limited
One Toronto Street
Toronto, Ontario
M5C 2V6
www.mcclelland.com
v3.1
For Mr. Jones
Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Cannabis Personae
CHAPTER ONE
Paradiso
CHAPTER TWO
Superseded by Damp
CHAPTER THREE
A Note from My Doctor
CHAPTER FOUR
Retail Weed
CHAPTER FIVE
The Grey Area
CHAPTER SIX
Botany 101
CHAPTER SEVEN
The Underground
CHAPTER EIGHT
We Circumnavigated the Globe and All We
Brought Back Was a Grilled Cheese Sandwich
CHAPTER NINE
A Party for the People
CHAPTER TEN
Strain Hunters
CHAPTER ELEVEN
California Über Alles
CHAPTER TWELVE
Natural’s Not in It
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Organoleptic in Berkeley
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
He Blinded Me with Science
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
El Toro
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Sticky Fingers
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The Green Rush
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The Rumble in the Lowlands
CHAPTER NINETEEN
A Grateful Dead Reference Emerges in the Narrative
CHAPTER TWENTY
The Tribe Has Spoken
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Heart of Dankness
Acknowledgments
Further Reading
About the Author
Cannabis Personae
UNDERGROUND BOTANISTS
Aaron, DNA Genetics, Amsterdam Don, DNA Genetics, Amsterdam
Franco, Green House Seeds, Amsterdam Arjan, Green House Seeds,
Amsterdam Reeferman, Reeferman Seeds, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan,
Canada Swerve, Cali Connection, San Fernando Valley, California
OUTLAW FARMERS
Crockett, Sierra Nevada mountains The Guru
Slim
Jerry
E
TRIMMERS
Red
Chuva
Cletus “The Dingo” McClusky
ACTIVISTS
Debby Goldsberry, Oakland
Richard Lee, Oaksterdam University, Oakland