Remembering Wade Laughter, the Unsung Hero of CBD

Wade Laughter passed away last week after a long battle with cancer. Beloved within the cannabis community as the modest, softspoken horticulturist with a big heart and a great last name, Wade is one of the unsung heroes of botanical CBD that took root in northern California in the early 2010s. At that time, hardly anyone knew about nonintoxicating cannabidiol and its remarkable therapeutic potential outside of a small group of scientists who were studying the endocannabinoid system. Word about CBD started to spread within medical marijuana circles when a handful of CBD-rich cannabis cultivars were identified by newly established analytical labs servicing the nascent cannabis industry. 

One of these CBD-rich varietals was “Harlequin,” so named by Wade Laughter, who didn’t take credit for breeding it. He said he merely discovered it. And we were very fortunate that he did. With CBD emerging as the exciting new kid on the cannabinoid block, several early adopters who had access to rare CBD-rich genetics were initially skittish about releasing their proprietary property. Not so with Wade Laughter.

Wade didn’t feel like he was the rightful owner of Harlequin. Nor was anyone else. He had been gifted this plant serendipitously, and he would gift it back to the community. He opted to make Harlequin available to anyone who was interested in growing it and exploring its healing attributes. Harlequin clones began to “seed” the California cannabis landscape, and soon Wade’s gift popped up in other states, as well. Thus began an unsupervised, mass-based medical experiment, a grassroots laboratory experiment in democracy, enabled by Laughter’s decision to share Harlequin with the world. 

What would happen when a lot of people consumed CBD-rich cannabis?  The preclinical science — attesting to the compound’s anti-inflammatory, anticonvulsant, anti-tumoral, neuroprotective, and analgesic properties — was nothing short of jaw-dropping. Thus far, however, most of the scientific studies involved single-molecule CBD tested on mice, rather than whole-plant CBD-rich cannabis flower and oil extract, which is what Wade was providing in California. 

I grew some Harlequin in my backyard in 2011 and 2012. It was a squat, indica-looking plant, three-and-a-half-feet tall, very bushy with huge odiferous purple-pinkish colas oozing medicated goo that contained a significant amount of both CBD and THC. This gorgeous botanical tested at close to a 1:1 CBD:THC ratio. The CBD:THC ratio, which fluctuated from garden to garden, was influenced by how long these plants stayed in the ground. (A somewhat earlier harvest might register 3:2 CBD:THC, while a later harvest might shift it to 2:3 CBD:THC.) 

Some of my humble harvest, I later learned, travelled to the east coast and found its way to the stash of Harvard professor emeritus and prominent medical cannabis advocate Dr. Lester Greenspan, who sang the praises of Harlequin as a pleasant energizer and uplifting balm for stiff seniors. Harlequin was euphoria-inducing, but in a somewhat different way from the ubiquitous THC-dominant fare. CBD seemed to lower the ceiling on the THC high while extending its duration. 

In the early going THC, The High Causer, was always a key part of the CBD-rich equation. Within a few years, however, Harlequin and several other cannabis chemovars with roughly equal parts CBD and THC — Jamaican Lion, OmRita RX, Blue Jay Way (a True Blueberry/OG Kush cross), and Lawrence Ringo’s Sour Tsunami — were overshadowed by a surge of popular interest in nonintoxicating, high-CBD/low-THC cannabis oil extracts, misconstrued as “hemp” and much sought-after as an alternative treatment for epilepsy. 

While a green rush of investors and grifters went all in on the cannabis that doesn’t get you high (until the market for over-produced CBD isolate crashed), Wade Laughter stayed the course as the curator of the “House of Harlequin,” which he established and maintained in Grass Valley with his partner Monica Senter. Wade was a key figure in the Caladrius Netwok, a nonprofit that provided cannabis-based medicine (flower and full-spectrum extract) to terminally ill and catastrophically ill children.

Wade dedicated his life to helping others, no strings attached, without expecting a return favor. His kindness came from a deep place, “a foundation of true selflessness,” as one of Wade’s close friends put it. “He gave freely, with an open heart, without making others feel small. He served quietly without needing applause. He stood beside the vulnerable, not above them.”

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