cause almost everyone interviewed for this story is, or has been, a criminal, almost everyone long ago adopted pseudonyms. Some are no longer criminals, so don’t mind their real names being used. Some are no longer criminals, but still prefer to use their pseudonyms.
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On June 6, 1991, an 18-year old kid was hanging out in the parking lot of a Grateful Dead Show in Noblesville, Indiana. Since school let out, the boy had been following the band around with his best friend in a GMC Jimmy. This was maybe their 15th show. It had been a great summer so far, but dry for highs. So, when some dude called Joebrand walked by and said he had good bud, the boy bought a whole ounce for $500.
It was the best damn weed he'd ever smoked. "Where did you get it?" the kid asked. Joebrand told him it was from a bunch of older biker guys in Colorado, and that some people called it Chemweed, but others called it Dogbud. The boy took Joebrand's phone number, and after the summer tour, when he was back home in Western Massachusetts, he ordered another ounce in the mail.
The bag also contained 13 seeds, and they sprouted legend.
If you are one of the more than 100 million Americans who have ever gotten high, chances are you've smoked a descendant of those lucky 13 seeds. The first one grew into Chemdog 91 (sometimes Chemdawg 91, named for the year of its vintage, and in honor of its ancestor), which is now sold in dispensaries around America.
Chemdog 91, in turn, is the mother of Sour Diesel, possibly the most popular marijuana strain in existence. Both Chemdog and Sour Diesel, in turn, have been cross-bred with pretty much every other high-quality strain, to produce an infinite variety of other beloved strains. Chemdog is the Genghis Khan of weed.
"Recommending Sour Diesel as a weed critic is like a music writer extolling the virtues of The Beatles," wrote Jake Browne, one of the Denver Post's pot reviewers, "or a historian making a case for George Washington as a great president."
The 18-year-old never had any intention of growing marijuana. He had no inclinations toward botany or a life of crime. But he just couldn't get over this stuff.
"It was the most skunkiest and most flavorful marijuana I'd ever tried in my life," he said. "It was crazy. If you had a little piece in a baggy and went to the grocery store, the whole frickin' grocery store would stink like skunk." 
So, the kid got into gardening.
Today, that kid is 42, and has taken the nickname of his famous weed. Thousands of patients now use Chemdog's strains to melt away their PTSD or depression. They're bought and sold, prescribed and taxed, savored and sanctified. In a legal market worth $2.7 billion, and growing faster than any other industry in America, Chemdog's progeny have a formidable market share position. Chemdog's the guy who launched a 100 million highs – the Brian Epstein of psychotropics.
He's also broke.