He smoked a lot of weed.
“When they finally did the surgery, they said it was more cyst-like than tumor. So I believe the cannabis was helping to break it down, even though the neurosurgeon didn’t think so,” said Leclere, a Scottsdale-based event promoter. “The doctors and Big Pharma don’t believe anything other than what they prescribe.”
The experience gave Leclere an improbable idea: What if there was a television show, both entertaining and educational, that spotlighted passionate plant innovators in the newly legal weed industry?
This month, that idea becomes a reality. “High Science” will debut on YouTube on Nov. 27. Over eight episodes, the father-son duo of Rich Batenburg Jr. and Rick Batenburg III will take viewers “on a rarely seen adventure that unravels the inside world of cannabis,” according to a press release about the show.
Leclere serves as the show’s founder, CEO and executive producer. David McKillop, known for working on popular reality series such as “Duck Dynasty,” “Pawn Stars” and “Deadliest Catch,” is the show’s president and creative director.
“He came out of retirement and the rest is history — here we are,” Leclere said. “He’s somebody I’m just honored to have as my partner on this project.”
The two Batenburgs host the program, taking viewers on a journey through the cannabis industry and across the world. That includes a stop in Arizona. The show will highlight the cannabis innovations of Moe Asnani and Chip Boyden of Arizona wholesaler iLAVA. It will also feature Angel Shark Advisors’ Yuri Downing, who was one of the first people to win a license to grow in the state.
In addition, the show will visit Massachusetts, Australia and Jamaica and introduce viewers to marijuana industry legends such as Jon Piasecki and Johnny GreenFingaz.
“They are truly the pioneers — I call them the OGs — of the industry,” Leclere said. “I mean, some of them in the show are in the 40s and have been in the cannabis industry 25, 30 years.”
Making the show
With no history of working in the TV industry, Leclere’s idea was a daydream until a friend set him up with McKillop, who is a two-time Emmy winner. Leclere said what hooked McKillop was the concept of maintaining ownership of the show’s intellectual property instead of letting the network own it.That’s why the show is on YouTube. Early in the development process, Leclere and McKillop realized that striking a cable network would require significant compromises on the content of the show.
“We found out very fast that because (cannabis) is not federally legal, it was going to be difficult to put it on the show,” Leclere said. “They all want cannabis shows, but they don’t want to make it about cannabis. They want to make it into a venture capital show — they don’t want to show products.”
The problem parallels the issues that marijuana industry professionals face. The trade isn’t yet mainstream, and safe banking is an untenable or unaffordable luxury. True to the spirit of the show and the status of the marijuana trade, Leclere and McKillop decided to stream it on YouTube. There, they can make a show that really digs into the world of cannabis.
At the show’s core is a serious idea about marijuana’s potential as a plant-based medicine. For decades, the U.S. government mercilessly persecuted and prosecuted its use during the War on Drugs. The show’s characters are the true believers — iconoclasts who maintained their regard for the marijuana plant even when the powers that be declared it had no medical value whatsoever.
Now, their skill and knowledge are important in mainstream culture and science, not just for getting frivolously stoned.
“These guys believe in this plant and have spent so many years in the underground, that when it finally started going legal, they came out of the dark into the light,” Leclere said. “They’re helping veterans with PTSD, mental illness, kids with epilepsy, people with anxiety, sleep disorder and eating disorders.”
High Science is more than just a show to Leclere. He also started the High Science Charity Foundation to support plant-based research, advocacy and education. Leclere said the foundation’s work is especially focused on veterans with PTSD and underserved communities. He also expressed interest in mushroom-based therapy for PTSD. Should “High Science” embark upon a second season, Leclere said it will focus on psychedelics.
“Plant-based therapy and clinical studies in plant-based medicine is the way to go,” Leclere said. “And Big Pharma can’t do nothing about it.”
