T H E C A N N A B I S M A N I F E S T O : A N E W PA R A D I G M F O R W E L L N E S S
B Y S T E P H E N D E A N G E L O Street date: September 22, 2015
Published by North Atlantic Books, distributed by Penguin/Random House.
Steve has been named in three very important publications as a national influencer:
International Business Times: Top 20 of Most Influential Leaders in the Cannabis Industry
Details Magazine: Top National Leaders as Digital Mavericks in the Cannabis Industry
Cannabis Business Executive: #4 of the Top 100 Most Influential Leaders in the Country
Stephen DeAngelo:
N AT I O N A L C A N N A B I S L E A D E R , G L O B A L V I S I O N A RY
Steve DeAngelo is an undisputed
national leader and provocative
visionary in the cannabis industry, with four decades of activism
and advocacy in the cannabis reform movement. News teams from
around the globe have featured
Steve, including major media outlets in the United States, Canada,
Italy, Japan, Germany, Brazil and
the United Kingdom. Steve’s landmark Harborside Health Center
in California has also been covered extensively as a model for the
emerging cannabis industry nationwide; it is a place where safe access, compassionate
and responsible use, and lab-tested, high-quality medicine, is offered to patients in great
need of relief from a wide range of medical conditions.
ROBYN TWOMEY / FORTUNE MAGAZINE
B I O G R A P H Y
Gaynell Rogers
MANAGEMENT &
MEDIA RELATIONS
[email protected]
415.298.1114
An engaging speaker and interview subject, Steve DeAngelo has been featured in The New
York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, CNN, the Associated Press, Huffington
Post, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, the BBC, the Discovery Channel, Fortune Magazine,
Forbes Magazine, and every major television network news source in the country. His creation of a model medical cannabis dispensary that sets the best practices for an entire
industry, along with his lifelong cannabis activism and encyclopedic knowledge in this
arena, has made Steve one of the world’s foremost cannabis experts and respected speakers on this controversial issue.
His activist education started early. Stephen DeAngelo was born in Philadelphia in 1958
and raised in Washington, D.C., where his father worked for the Kennedy administration.
At a young age, Steve was influenced by his parents’ involvement in the Civil Rights movement and his father’s work with the Peace Corps (1967-1969) – but most significantly
when the family returned to the U.S. from India as the Vietnam War and its atrocities
were prominent in the news. Feeling the turbulent signs of the times, Steve began skipping school to attend antiwar demonstrations – in 7th grade he organized the takeover of
his school’s gymnasium in solidarity with one of these antiwar demonstrations. By the
time he was a teenager Steve was aware that his political dissent could very well result
in going to jail or being shot. Nonetheless, that didn’t stop him. At 16 years old Steve
dropped out of school to join the Yippies, and was the key organizer of the annual Fourth
of July (Marijuana) Smoke-Ins in front of the White House.
Steve spent several years as a street activist, and then transitioned between activism
and entrepreneurial endeavors. It wasn’t easy. As he grew from a teenager to a young
man in his 20s, Steve put the skills he learned as a street activist (event continued
1
B I O G R A P H Y
(continued)
planning, stage management and promotions) to work in
the music industry. He became an Independent concert
promoter, nightclub manager and record producer. Steve
soon renovated two movie theaters and converted them to
live music venues – yet another model developed way before
its time. He played a key role in the rehabilitation of the Adams Morgan neighborhood in D.C., with the opening of the
Beat Club and renovation of Ontario Theater from movies
to live performances.
was passed due to influence from moneyed interests like
the Hearst and DuPont Corporations, which saw hemp as a
threat to their investments in timber and plastics.
In 1998, two years after California passed its landmark
medical cannabis initiative, Steve played a key leadership
role in the passage of Washington, D.C.’s medical cannabis
legislation, Initiative 59. Despite winning with 69% of the
vote, and in every single precinct in the city, the U.S. Congress used its power to veto implementation of I-59. Shocked
and disillusioned by this violation of majority rule, Steve
decided to move to California where, unlike D.C., medical
cannabis legislation was not subject to a congressional veto.
In 1984 Steve completed his interrupted education, summa
cum laude from the University of Maryland in two and a
half years. After graduation he opened the legendary Nuthouse, which High Times Magazine called a version of the
famous Family Dog in San Francisco. During the first Bush
administration, this proved to be a refuge for Washington,
D.C., cannabis activists and notables, including William
Kunstler, Wavy Gravy and Jack Herer.
All the while, he laid plans for a new type of medical cannabis dispensary. Steve got the chance to put his plans in
action October 2006, when he won a highly competitive request for proposal (RFP) process and was issued a medical
cannabis dispensary license by the City of Oakland.
Steve launched Harborside Health Center to bring a new
model of professionalism and integrity to the industry. Harborside quickly gained recognition for its free holistic care
clinic, laboratory-tested medicine, low-income care package
program, and wide array of other patient services. This innovative approach generated widespread acceptance and
notoriety, with acclaim by the community, city council, and
local law enforcement in Northern California and beyond.
In 2007 Steve was a founder in the creation and development of Steep Hill Labs, California’s premier medical cannabis analysis laboratory for safety screening and quality
assurance. He also founded The Arc View Investment group,
pairing angel investors with cannabis entrepreneurs.
“Out of the shadows and into the light” epitomizes Steve’s
mission. His work to expose the myths created about cannabis, and to promote the positive science that is starting
to emerge about it, aims to enlighten the public on the
many benefits of the cannabis plant.
In 1986, author and activist Jack Herer showed up at the
Nuthouse, waving a tattered tabloid manuscript of his soonto-be-famous book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes. Jack’s
book outlined the hidden history of the link between industrial hemp and marijuana, and the conspiracy to make both
of them illegal. The Emperor… deepened Steve’s realization
that cannabis was a good plant, not an evil drug. After
reading it, he decided to focus his efforts on promoting the
book’s message far and wide. After helping Jack edit and
publish the manuscript, Steve became a prime organizer of
the first Hemp Museum and Hemp Tour, which brought the
news about hemp to hundreds of universities nationwide.
This is an important moment in time and history that is empowering the country to change its image and perception of
cannabis. Steve DeAngelo and Harborside Health Center are
leading the way globally, while the rest of the world is now
discovering the many health benefits of this amazing plant.
Steve sees hemp and cannabis as one issue, not two. He
believes that the 1937 legislation that made cannabis illegal
2
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
& GLOBAL EVENTS
DeAngelo – a veteran businessman and CEO of a 130,000-patient
medical marijuana dispensary – is already one of the best-known
personalities in the world of cannabis. Recently featured in a Fortune
magazine cover story and a one-hour CNN documentary, he employs
a full-time marketing staff that generates hundreds of media mentions every month, and professional SEO that optimizes direct online
reach to:
• 60,000+ monthly visitors HHC web site
• 20,474 Facebook friends/likes HHC
• 18,000+ subscribers HHC digital monthly newsletter
• 15,187 Twitter followers HHC
• 7,000+ monthly visitors Steve DeAngelo web site
• 6.049 Facebook friends/likes Steve DeAngelo
• 4,960 Twitter followers Steve DeAngelo
The Harborside web site is a top-ranked SEO e-commerce outlet for
the global brand, and worldwide cannabis media (online and print)
offering millions more impressions.
Steve DeAngelo is consistently invited to be a keynote speaker at government meetings, colleges, law schools, TEDX style events, cannabis
events and lifestyle forums across the country. Below is a brief sampling
of some the speaking engagements he has been featured including a
Medical Cannabis Symposium, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
2009
VIDEO
TedX Summit Series on Entrepreneurs & The Philanthropic Spirit
WASHINGTON D.C.
D
isplayed in that tour were balls of twine made from
hemp, which college students found to be an excellent
material for macramé jewelry, and began purchasing
in increasing quantities. Before long, Steve had completely
exhausted the available supply of twine in the United States,
so he traveled to Eastern Europe in search of a reliable
source. That trip led to the 1990 founding of Ecolution, a
pioneering company that manufactured hemp clothing and
accessories, and exported them to retail stores in 50 states
and 21 foreign countries. This enterprise again enabled Steve
to cross-pollinate his extraordinary leadership and activism
skills, helping Ecolution grow into one of the most professional and mainstream hemp companies in the country.
Stephen DeAngelo
National NORML Conference, San Francisco Hyatt Hotel
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
6th National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics
CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL, WARWICK, RHODE ISLAND
Deal Flow Media Financial – MMJ National Business Conference
HILTON HOTEL, NEW YORK, NY
2010
NB C NIGHTLY NEWS
Steve arrived in California in 2000, and immersed himself in
the local medical cannabis milieu. He was one of the original founding members of Americans for Safe Access, the
premier advocacy group for medical cannabis patients. He
wrote and produced a short documentary film called, “For
Medical Use Only,” helped organize several legal cannabis
gardens, and invented a new form of cannabis concentrate.
WEED WARS
Patients Out of Time Clinical Conference for Health Professionals
SCIENCE & CLINICAL CONFERENCE, HYATT HOTEL, TUCSON, AZ
Gaynell Rogers
International Hemp & Cannabis Festival
MANAGEMENT &
MEDIA RELATIONS
Washington D.C. City Council Meeting on Regulation
[email protected]
415.298.1114
OUT OF THE SHADOWS AND INTO THE LIGHT
COW PALACE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, WASHINGTON D.C.
continued
3
E N G AG E M E N T S
(continued)
Steve DeAngelo & Harborside Health Center
MEDIA OVERVIEW
2011
Deep Green Festival
– Ecology, Environment, Health
CRANEWAY PAVILION, RICHMOND, CA
National Cannabis Cup, High Times Magazine
HILTON HOTEL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
University of Maryland
COLLEGE PARK, MD
2012
Lewis & Clark Law School Graduation Class
– Cannabis Reform
EUGENE, OR
I
n the last few years, Stephen DeAngelo
and Harborside Health Center have been
featured in U.S. national and worldwide
media. Below is a partial list of some of the
media highlights.
Al Jazerra America
Sweden TV 4
Mexico’s Ammonia Magazine
A small sample of the many articles featuring DeAngelo and his work can be found at
these links:
THE NEW YORK TIMES (cover story)
FORTUNE MAGAZINE (cover story)
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
REUTERS NEWS
FORBES MAGAZINE
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES (cover story)
THE WASHINGTON POST
THE WASHINGTON POST SUNDAY MAGAZINE (cover)
THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (front page)
THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN
THE SAN FRANCISCO WEEKLY
THE EAST BAY EXPRESS
THE OAKLAND TRIBUNE
THE SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
CALIFORNIA PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT NEWS
THE LONDON TIMES
PROVIDENCE JOURNAL
ROLLING STONE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON MONTHLY
BUSINESS WEEK
BLOOMBERG BUSINESS WEEK NEWS
SMART MONEY
RODALE – PREVENTION MEN’S HEALTH
THE DAILY CALIFORNIAN
HIGH TIMES MAGAZINE
WEST COAST LEAF
THE NEW YORK TIMES
April 23, 2010
FORTUNE MAGAZINE (cover story)
September 11, 2009
FORTUNE MAGAZINE (cover story)
March 21, 2013
MMJ Business Daily National Business
Conference - Investment
WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE (cover story)
October 22, 2010
DENVER, CO
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES
June 15, 2013
University of San Francisco Business Grad
School – Cannabis Futures
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Grow Expo
IRUN, SPAIN
2013
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
– State of the Industry
AMHERST, MA
Cannafest International Symposium
PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
S P E A K I N G AT A N N UA L
EVENTS & CONFERENCES
(Please note - estimated attendance of event)
Americans for Safe Access (ASA)
ATTENDANCE: 500
National Organization of Reform
of Marijuana Laws (Normal)
ATTENDANCE: 1000
Drug Policy Alliance (DPA)
ATTENDANCE: 2000
AND AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP)
ATTENDANCE: 300
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP)
ATTENDANCE: 500
4
N AT I O N A L T V
Star of “Weed Wars” on The Discovery Channel
NBC Nightly News
CNN – Morgan Spurlock’s “Inside Man” series
CNN – Dr. Sanja Gupta’s “Weed” documentary
PBS Peter Sagal’s “Constitution” series
Fox Business News
MSNBC
Bloomberg News
Frontline
National Geographic (two features)
The History Channel
KRON – Ch. 4 San Francisco
ABC - KGO 7 San Francisco
CBS – KPIX 5 San Francisco
NBC - Bay Area 11 San Francisco
Fox - KTVU Ch. 2 Oakland
I N T E R N AT I O N A L T V
Univision Ahora TV
Germany’s NRD
French TV 2
Italy TV MediaSet
Scandinavia Financial Times
Le Monde News
England’s BBC and ITN
Australian Daily Standard
Japan’s NHK
Tokyo TV
Germany - Focus Magazine
Brazil El Globo TV
Finland Documentary
PRINT
RADIO
Voice of America
NPR’s Marketplace
California Report
Dr. Radio - NYC
Koji Nandi Show in D.C.
Diane Rehm Show in D.C.
KSFR PBS New Mexico
KQED Heath & Science Report
Paula Gloria Show – NYC
KPFA – Carolyn Casey Show
Drug Truth Network - Pacifica, CA
Huffington Post
Politico
Examiner.com
DCist.com
DailyBeast.com
The Crime Report
WEB