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Dec 2, 2013

On this month's very special episode of the Dopecast, the Dopefiend has reached the end of his epic cannabis odyssey across the United States of America, and is now in the epicentre of the cannabis legalization movement, Oakland, California, where the world's biggest legal cannabis dispensary, Harborside Health Centre, can be found. We join the Dopefiend, MangledMe and Harborside's General Manager Andrew DeAngelo, who leads an all-access tour of his incredible facility and explains how the process of becoming a registered patient works at Harborside, what life is like for its considerable workforce, and what services, other than cannabis dispensing, are also provided by Harborside, including offering free herb in exchange for activism. Andrew talks the Dopefiend through all the herbs, oils, concentrates, topicals, creams, ointments, cakes, cookies, crisps, jellies, gummies and sweets, and introduces him to the facility's security, purchasing, social media, analysis, sales, quality control, and inventory departments. After the tour, the Dopefiend, MangledMe and Andrew D'Angelo return to the sanctuary of his office, where they talk about the phenomenal journey that has led Andrew and his brother Steve to be the founders of such a mindblowing operation, and how they were instrumental in the movement right from it's earliest days on Jack Herer's Hemp Tour and then during the fight for Proposition 215 in California. They also discuss the crippling federal taxation of Harborside and the rest of the medical cannabis community, and how the fight against such legal issues can sometimes distract them from their mission, but how they still believe responsible adult use will become legal in California and in the States in general, and how they hope to one day scale up the Harborside model across the globe. Next, the Dopefiend is joined by a crowd of DopeTribers in beautiful Golden Gate Park in San Francisco to celebrate the finale of his tour and to share a toke en masse. The Dopefiend talks to Nova from TreeTown Seeds about his experience of working in the California cannabis industry, and what life's like for cannabis users in California, then finds out from Sacramento DopeTriber Chris what dispensaries are like where he lives, and about how fear of federal raids has some dispensary operators running scared. Chris also talks about his use of cannabis as a treatment for pain, and his own experience as a personal medical grower, which led him to discover the Dopefiend Network via Zandor's show. Next, the Dopefiend talks to his host in San Francisco, Henri, who talks about why he first came to San Francisco in the mid-80s, and how it compares to his former home of New Orleans, and how he saw the spread of the cannabis culture by jazz musicians morph into the adoption of cannabis advocacy by hip-hop artists in later years. Henri also talks about his use of cannabis as a spiritual, creative and medical aid, and how he feels cannabis is the foundation of a uniquely broad social network. Dopefiend then turns to DopeTriber Astroholic, to talk about his experience of illegal forest raves in California, descendents of Ken Kesey's original Acid Tests, and how his home in Silicon Valley is connected to the cannabis and psychedelic culture. The Dopefiend then talks to fellow Silicon Valley resident Mikael about how his cannabis consumption has decreased in recent years, and his thoughts on new vaporizer technology, such as the Omicron oil vaporizer and the influx of new vape pens, and also his feelings about the increased investment in the cannabis industry by speculative investors, and whether that might change the market. Next, Jay Hobbes talks about how he sees the stigma around cannabis use dissipating, and the growth of a new intelligent cannabis user paradigm, such as VapeXhale Cloud EVO inventor Stonemonkey, and the Dopefiend gets a word with some of Jay's stoner buddies too, before checking in with his travelling companion MangledMe on this epic cannabis odyssey across this vast country. Finally the Dopefiend says his goodbyes, not just to those who have joined him on his tour across America, but to all those who have joined him on his journey as the Dopefiend. The Dopefiend will return, but not for a while. Stay Stoned everyone! Email mail@dopefiend.co.uk, send us a voicemail, follow @dopefiend and the new Virtual VaporLounge on twitter, and check out the forum.

Download this episode here: http://traffic.libsyn.com/dopecast/Dopecast358.mp3

For more about Harborside Health Centre, see www.harborsidehealthcenter.com

FOr more about TreeTown Seeds, see www.treetownseeds.com

Playlist: Lady Gaga - Dope; Peggy Lee - Is That All There Is

Podcast Image: MangledMe and the California DopeTribe on Hippy Hill. Submit your pics here by email: mail@dopefiend.co.uk