Updated April 2, 2013, 2:21pm CT
When I recently got an email featuring the phrase “Weed Wednesdays” in the subject line, I was kind of hoping it might be from my HR department, announcing a new morale-building initiative. But, actually, it was from Discovery Channel, touting a couple of new marijuana-themed series beginning this Wednesday, Feb. 20, with Weed Country, then continuing in April with Pot Cops, both of which look at the underground world of marijuana growers and the authorities who try to kill their buzz.
Weed Wednesdays will kick off with Weed Country this Wednesday, Feb. 20, at 10pm ET/PT. The six-part Weed Country goes inside the underground world of growers and dealers looking to engineer some of the most powerful marijuana on earth while doing their best to keep out of jail. Weed Country is set in a remote wilderness deep inside the border of Northern California and Oregon — a place known as the Emerald Triangle — where marijuana flourishes. Farmers in this area can earn millions in a single summer, but with that reward comes huge legal risk, and cutthroat competition.
Many of the growers believe it’s their duty to supply the plant for much needed medicinal purposes. “Any other flower that had these medical properties would be treated as the greatest discovery to happen in this century,” said Nate Morris, who began growing marijuana at just 14 years old and hopes to turn the plant into a medical game changer.
However, in the eyes of the government, Nate and his fellow growers are felons committing serious crimes and the idea of medical marijuana is a scam. “Kids are getting a hold of it and that’s one of my big concerns. It is a problem of epidemic proportions,” said Jon Lopey. Sheriff Coroner of Siskiyou County, California.
Heavily armed with weapons and helicopters for aerial surveillance, these hardline law enforcers will stop at nothing to take down the growers’ operations and cut off their supply chains. As the pressure intensifies, turf wars and battles erupt between neighbors. Will the growers win the fight to change hardline political and social attitudes? Or will the authorities be able to bring them down once and for all?
After the six-episode run of Weed Country, Weed Wednesdays will debut another marijuana-themed series starting April 3: Pot Cops.
Set in Humboldt County, in Northern California, where apparently some of the most conducive marijuana-growing conditions in the U.S. are available, the three-episode Pot Cops follows a Drug Enforcement Unit working to stop armed Mexican drug cartels that have been planting crops. Of course, it isn’t just the violent cartels operating in the areas; many “average joe” growers operate here, as well, and they can also be brought down along with the cartels if their activities happen to wind up on the Drug Enforcement Unit’s radar.
Pot Cops follows the unit as they locate, raid and arrest the illegal growers and cut down their crops. Episodes of Pot Cops are:
“Cartel Threat” — April 3 at 10pm: The Pot Cops risk all to take down Mexican cartel growers who are running huge, clandestine weed farms in the Redwoods and shooting at local children in the Hoopa Indian Reservation. But before they do, the cops must first locate a grow that contains several hundred plants and deal with the suspected grower: an armed, 300-pound local who claims innocence.
“Buried in Weed” — April 10 at 10pm: A strike team of Pot Cops enters what will be the busiest week of the harvest season. The week kicks off with a bizarre, slow-speed chase of a stoned grower and culminates in a strike against one of Humboldt’s most notorious pot-growing families.
“End of Harvest” — April 17 at 10pm: The Humboldt Drug Enforcement Unit enters crunch time of the harvest season, where the team finds themselves on the trail of a bizarrely charismatic local grower. Meanwhile, the team investigates parents who may be putting their own children at risk while hiding a huge grow somewhere in the surrounding hills.
Weed Country airs Wednesdays at 10pm ET/PT on Discovery Channel starting Feb. 20.
Pot Cops airs Wednesdays at 10pm ET/PT on Discovery Channel starting April 3.
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Credit: Discovery Channel
