In Humboldt County, California, two proud maverick families with histories as marijuana growers face unexpected challenges, and conflicts, when cannabis becomes legal in early 2018.

SYNOPSIS:

They’re two rival businesses launched some years apart, businesses based on weed, land and family, passed down from one generation to the next, from hippie father to hipster son. The Shermans, who started privately growing marijuana back in the early 60s, dovetailing with the dawn of the freedom culture that’s typified California to the world. The Galarragas, who started growing herb on adjacent parcels of land in the early 70s, when much of that culture was in full bloom.

Ed Sherman, early 70’s, a native Californian, sold weed to Dennis Hopper and the Rolling Stones — among other satisfied customers. He’s kept a low profile, keeping up appearances as a family man and the head of a thriving landscaping company. Little by little, he grows cannabis indoors, in greenhouses, and in isolated corners of choice plots of land too remote for the feds to raid and destroy.

Angel Galarraga, patriarch of the Galarraga family, and an expert cannabis grower, bought land in Humboldt County in 1983. Ever cautious, he stayed low key and built his own landscaping concern. But over the years, Angel Galarraga was just as acquisitive as Ed Sherman, buying land for a relative pittance ... and building his own other family business with the zeal of an entrepreneur and the deep reservoir of American pride common to first-generation immigrants. Especially one from Mexico.

For years they were more or less friendly rivals with separate clienteles and different objectives, living in a close-knit community where the world outside was nothing but strangers. Both families struggled to survive the changing weather, wildfires, and the government’s various wars on drugs. The mildly antagonistic relationship lasted until Jan. 1, 2018, when California, home to the world’s sixth-largest economy, enacted laws that let the state’s 39 million people buy and use recreational marijuana.

Suddenly, the stakes for both families got higher. Overnight, outsiders stood to become proto-titans of a new industry; social pariahs morphed into masters of the universe. And millions hinged not only on producing something vastly popular, but also marketing it right, making it desirable to a wide legal customer base ... and doing anything to gain leverage in a constantly shifting marketplace.

Anything.

Semi-finalist, 6th annual Stage 32 Television Writing Contest, 2021.